From April 14 to 16, more than 50 delegates from around Indonesia met at an extraordinary congress to discuss the future of the Peoples Democratic Union (PRD). During the last 18 months, the PRD has developed as the most systematic, militant, democratic campaigning organisation against the dictatorship. Its campaigns have been carried out in coordination with workers, students, peasants, artists and East Timorese solidarity organisations. It has led the biggest worker mobilisations in recent months, as well as the joint sit-ins with East Timorese students at the Dutch and Russian embassies in Jakarta on December 7.
At the April congress, the PRD took a further step forward as a political alternative for the Indonesian people by transforming itself into a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (still PRD in the Indonesian initials). The congress delegates were all leaders of organisations that had been coordinating with the PRD, namely SMID (Students in Solidarity with Democracy in Indonesia), PPBI (Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles), STN (National Peasants' Association), and JAKER (People's Cultural Network). The majority of these mass organisation leaders are young, mostly under the age of 26, and 15 of the 50 or so delegates were women.
Australian solidarity activists Graham Mitchell and Karen Fleming attended the congress at the invitation of the PRD. They report of the congress below.
Despite the intention to launch the PRD as an open, not underground, party, security arrangements for the congress were very tight.
We travelled with delegates from Jakarta — workers and students. We first gathered in a safe house and attended a briefing by the security officer assigned to our group of 12 people. We were told that we would have to split into three groups and leave the house separately. Later, we were all to board the same bus for the 12-hour journey to central Java. We were to tell anybody who asked that we were tourists travelling with our guide. The others were to be journalism students.
Although we were travelling in the same bus, and often were jammed in next to each other, we could not be seen to know each other.
At the congress itself, the blackboard was set up as if we were a group of students discussing management and advertising for student newspapers. But the real content was rather more historic.
At the first session, Budiman Sujatmiko, interim chairperson, reported on the activities of the People's Democratic Union. He outlined the process by which the organisation's first leadership, elected at the PRD's founding congress in May 1994, had refused to carry out the PRD's stated objectives of initiating militant mass actions. The membership of the PRD had recalled these leaders and elected a provisional presidium in August 1995, of which Budiman Sujatmiko was elected chair.
After that, militant actions were organised by and carried out in the name of the PRD — an occupation of the Russian and Dutch embassies in alliance with East Timorese resistance activists and two major industrial actions involving thousands of workers in Solo and Surabaya.
The strategic goal adopted in the party's constitution and program is the creation of a "democratic and multiparty society". In this task, the PRD is willing to enter into alliances with the two legal non-government parties — the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) — and with all other democratic forces.
PRD activists already work with these forces in coalitions such as the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) [see box]. They were also an important part of the alliance for a free press that campaigned against the banning of the three weeklies — Editor, DeTik and Tempo — in 1994 and are part of the alliance of radical pro-democracy groups, called Opposisi Indonesia, that was established in October 1995.
The congress ratified the priority that PRD has been giving to its work in KIPP. which is campaigning for democratic processes in the conduct of the upcoming elections. KIPP has already made a significant impact. It has drawn very broad support from liberal and democratic groups and individuals, as well as drawn fire from the regime. The ruling party, Golkar, has established its own election monitoring committee and the military have detained for questioning some PRD-KIPP activists.
The immediate demands of the PRD were summed up in the slogan: "Minimum wage 7000 rupiah. Decrease prices. Watch the elections. New party, new president."
The last part of the slogan — "new president" — relates to the growing sentiment for the replacement of Suharto as president, coupled with democratic reform. The sentiment for presidential change is reflected in the enormous popularity of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the late Sukarno, who was president from 1945 until 1965, when he was overthrown by Suharto. Sukarno was kept under house arrest until he died. Suharto also banned all his writings. Use of his photograph by anti-Golkar activists during election campaigns has also been banned.
PRD plans to link the political demands for democracy with the economic demands of the workers and peasants, around wages, prices and land reform, in the lead up to the 1997 elections.
The congress heard greetings from the National Council for Maubere Resistance (CNRM). The PRD program calls for an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination for East Timor. The PRD has led the way in Indonesia in carrying out protest demonstrations demanding Indonesian military withdrawal from East Timor.
The Congress elected a central board of six people, a chairperson (Budiman Sujatmiko), secretary general (Petrus) and others with responsibility for national organisation (Iwan), international affairs (Ria Shanti), education (Anom) and finance (Arie).