By Max Lane
According to Green Left Weekly sources in Jakarta, at least 47 people were shot and knifed to death in Jakarta during the July 27 military attack on supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri in the national headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Liberal Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid told the media that about 100 people were killed during the day. Two hundred were arrested. Spokespersons for Megawati have stated that 158 of her supporters are still missing.
Commandos dressed as supporters of the pro-government faction of the PDI attacked the headquarters to oust anti-Suharto PDI members. The dictatorship had ordered those occupying the headquarters to stop using it as a place for "democratic open forums" and to leave it to allow the officially recognised PDI leadership, of Suryadi, to take over.
In June, the dictatorship organised a fake congress of the PDI without going through the party's formal channels — buying, forcing and arbitrarily choosing so-called local delegates. The fake congress elected Suryadi as a new chairperson, supposedly replacing Megawati, the legitimate elected leader of the PDI.
Almost 10,000 PDI members rallied later in the day to protest the attack on their headquarters. The rally was violently dispersed by steel-baton-wielding soldiers, causing scores of injuries.
As news of the attack on the PDI headquarters and on the rally spread, tens of thousands of young people descended onto the streets, venting their anger against anything that symbolised the greed and wealth of Indonesia's current rulers. Several banks, the Ministry of Agriculture and motor vehicle showrooms were smashed and burned.
Megawati's position
Suharto came to power via the coordinated jailing and slaughter of supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the radical wing of the pro-Sukarnoist Indonesian National Party (PNI) and the radical Sukarnoist Indonesia Party (Partindo) in 1965. The military and right-wing youth groups killed more than 1 million people.
Since 1965, extreme violence has been used against groups of farmers, workers and urban poor Muslims, resulting in a series of massacres. Massacres have also occurred in East Timor. However, extreme violence has never been used against leaders and members of officially recognised political groups, such as the PDI.
The PDI was formed in the 1970s, when the dictatorship forced a number of non-Muslim political parties to fuse. Muslim parties were forced to fuse into the United Development Party (PPP). The forced fusions were aimed at eliminating the specific identities of the parties, some of which had deep roots in different parts of Indonesian society.
The largest of the parties forced into the PDI was the PNI. Although the PNI had been purged of many of its more radical leaders, many of whom were executed in 1965, it remained a large party with many supporters in small towns and villages, especially in Java, Sumatra and Bali. Most of its support came from small peasant farmers, landless farm labourers and urban unemployed and small traders. It also had large support from low-level government workers.
At the level of its leadership, the PNI was backed by some large landowners in Java and Bali and some of the small number of Indonesian big businessmen. It thus always had a dual character, and in 1962 split into a left and right wing following a new party leadership issuing a declaration calling for the party to be purged of landowners, big businessmen and corrupt officials. Most of the left-wing were jailed or killed in 1965.
For Suharto, the PDI was a relatively easy party to control until 1992. Since then the PDI has articulated some of the criticisms of middle level business groups which want an end to the privileged position of the Suharto family and its cronies in business and want a consistent application of law in civil life.
At the same time, the PDI has developed an image of being the voice of the "little people" in a society marked by extreme disparities between rich and poor and by extreme centralisation of political power in the hands of President Suharto.
The other reason the PDI has developed this image is the persistent struggle its members have waged over the last three years against the dictatorship's interference in its internal life, especially over the issue of the position of Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Ever since she first came forward as a potential PDI head, the dictatorship has attempted to keep her out. It was necessary for the PDI to conduct extraordinary congresses to overcome the regime's interference. The Megawati PDI leadership is the first political leadership operating inside the formal political system that has persistently defied the dictatorship. This fact, combined with the reputation of Megawati's father, former President Sukarno, for being uncorrupted and a friend of the "little people", has transformed Megawati into a symbol of the desire for democratic reform.
In the aftermath of the attack on her office, the killing of her supporters and accusations that her party has become a Trojan horse for communist-style radicals, Megawati has remained defiant. She continues to assert that she is the legitimate leader of the PDI and has called on the government to allow the people to decide who they want to support. PDI local branches are still planning to launch legal challenges to the puppet leadership of Suryadi in more than 200 local courts, the single biggest legal action in any political case in Indonesian history.
While Megawati remains defiant, her popularity will continue to grow. Mass discontent with the Suharto dictatorship has always been high but has deepened in recent years. The gap between rich and poor has been highlighted by the emergence of 20-30 hugely wealthy families in control of gigantic business corporations referred to as "konglomerat". The biggest of these konglomerat are those belonging to Suharto's children and Suharto's close personal and political associates.
At the same time, Indonesia's rapidly expanding and extremely young working class earns only $2-$3 per day, often in very dangerous factories and workplaces. The peasantry has been subjected to higher and higher taxes and other administrative charges. Protests by workers or peasants against low wages or corruption are met by military repression.
The leaders of the two independent trade unions operating in defiance of the dictatorship have been jailed. Muchtar Pakpahan, president of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI), was jailed in 1994 for nine months. Dita Sari, the president of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles (PPBI), is currently in jail awaiting trial for "spreading hatred against the government". She was arrested at a demonstration of 20,000 workers on July 8.
Dictatorship afraid
The regime's fear of an organised outbreak of defiance which could make Indonesia ungovernable is reflected in the armed forces leadership's announcement that it has given orders for demonstrators be shot on sight. It has also ordered all media not to report statements by Megawati or other opposition leaders.
The military have also singled out the People's Democratic Party (PRD), accusing it of using "communist-style" tactics, such as organising workers and students in mass actions. They have arrested and charged Muchtar Pakpahan with subversion, focusing on the allegation that his father was a member of the PKI.
An outspoken Sukarnoist, Permadi, has been summoned for interrogation and attacked publicly by the military for speaking out in public. More than 30 community, student and political organisations, which recently formed the Indonesian People's Assembly (MARI) to defend the democratic rights of the PDI, have also been attacked by the military. Prominent figures of MARI, such as Muchtar Pakpahan, are all likely to be targeted for arrest.
The attack on the PRD is also aimed at the PDI. The armed forces claim that the PDI is a Trojan Horse inside of which can be found the radical PRD. However, this attack has not drawn any support except from the dictatorship's own front organisations and extreme conservative Islamic groups.
Liberal Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid rejected the military's claim that the rioting on July 27 was caused by a "communist plot" and said that the people will not believe the regime. A range of academics and other commentators have criticised the attack on the PRD.
If Megawati and the PDI, Abdurrahman Wahid and the liberal Muslim community and the PRD maintain their different forms of defiance and act in solidarity, the precedent of sustained defiance will provide the basis of an effective "people power" movement that can rid Indonesia of the dictatorship. The form, methods and leadership of this movement will be defined over the next several months.