Struggles mount as Indonesian activists go on trial
By Max Lane
The trials of Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) president Budiman Sujatmiko, PRD secretary-general Petrus Haryanto, Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles (PPBI) president Dita Sari, nine other PRD activists and labour advocate Muchtar Pakpahan started on December 9. All 13 are charged with subversion, which carries the maximum penalty of death.
Even before the trials started , the PRD had won a major propaganda victory. In the immediate aftermath of July 27, when rioting in Jakarta followed a government attack on offices of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), the military and President Suharto had accused the PRD of being behind the riots.
But when the formal charges were announced two weeks before the trials started, there was virtually no mention of this accusation. This backdown was immediately taken up by the media.
The second back-down by the regime is reflected in the fact that there are no formal accusations of the PRD spreading Marxism-Leninism or communism, which is banned. No doubt the issue will be raised in the course of the trials, but the absence of any mention of communism in the indictment is a major defeat for the regime.
The attempt by the regime to paint the PRD as communist — i.e. in Indonesian political culture today, as evil, treacherous, anti-god — has failed.
At first the generals tried to paint Budiman as a hereditary communist by accusing his father and grandfather of being communists. It turned out that his father was manager of Goodyear Tires and had built a mini-mosque in his front yard for the use of his neighbours. His mother was a pious Muslim who described delivering prayer mats and other Islamic necessities to Budiman in jail.
Worse still for the regime, in its statements against the PRD it has virtually defined "communism" as using workers' power to achieve multiparty democracy, thus giving the PRD an increasingly positive image.
Since the trials began, the PRD's public profile has been further enhanced. There has been major front-page coverage of the trials. Budiman was able to give interviews to a number of newspapers at the end of the first day of his trial. These were featured on front pages with big photos of Budiman and were full of Budiman's criticisms of the regime and his espousal of democratic change.
The trial of Muchtar Pakpahan has also been reported in the media.
The character of the PRD as an organisation struggling for workers rights' and full democracy has been made clearer in that every mass action in support of democratic change and social justice and all its documents are listed in the prosecution charge sheet. Both witnesses from workers and management at companies where the PRD and PPBI led strikes have admitted that the strikes often achieved advances for the workers.
Since early December, protest actions have steadily increased again throughout the country. PDI supporters demonstrate whenever the pro-Suharto puppet PDI head, Suryadi, visits a town or city or wherever the pro-Megawati PDI has a court case going against Suryadi. Suryadi is unable to travel anywhere without a police escort.
There was a joint PRD-PDI picket outside the National Police Headquarters on December 10. Students have held actions in the university city of Yogyakarta demanding the release of the PRD prisoners and Muchtar Pakpahan. PDI supporters have attended PRD court hearings in shows of support.
In the Sumatran city of Lampung on December 10, 4000 striking bus drivers, university activists and high school students brought the city to a halt for two days. The drivers must pay Rp400 a day to the city government as well as a big slab of their takings to the bus company. The strike was in protest against a 100% increase in the road tax.
The drivers organised a minibus convoy around the city and a rally outside the governor's residence to protest against the fare increase as well as the myriad of other bribes that must paid to different parts of the state apparatus. There were frequent clashes with the military.
During the course of the day, hundreds of high school students also joined the protests, lying down in the street. When the military tried to remove them, clashes occurred. The students then moved through the city, pulling out hundreds of newly planted palm trees along the footpaths and hundreds of pot plants, which they piled in the centre of the streets.
The military brought in trucks to take the high school students to school, but the students stoned them.
Meanwhile, campus students were holding rallies and open forums on three different campuses, the University of Bandar Lampung, the Institute for Economic Studies and the Lampung Institute of Accountancy. These campuses were surrounded by military, but no action was taken against the hundreds of students.
The different rallies called for an end to human rights abuses in Indonesia, as well as raising the central PRD demands for a withdrawal of all repressive political laws and the end of any role for the military in politics. The rallies expressed solidarity with the minibus drivers. About 2000 students took part.
On December 11, students from the Lampung State University joined in. About 2500 people were reported to have taken part in a rally. The students marched out, in good order, inside marshals' ropes, and started a five-kilometre march to Bandar Lampung University, where they held another successful and peaceful rally.
On the evening of the second day, the city authorities caved in, announcing that the road tax would drop to the original Rp400 per day and action would be taken against the endemic bribery in the transport system.