By Max Lane
President Suharto's move to oust Megawati Sukarnoputri as the legally recognised head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was aimed at ensuring that there would be no opposition to Golkar, the ruling party, in next year's elections.
The kind of elections to be expected was revealed at the end of August when the heads of Golkar, the Moslem United Development Party and the head of the government-recognised PDI, Suryadi, met and announced that they all supported the President. They also announced that they would refrain from criticising each other during the elections.
Despite having tamed the leaderships of these three parties, it appears that Suharto is still extremely frightened of allowing any opportunity for mass campaigning during the election period. On September 4, he ordered the National Defence and Security Council to prepare regulations that would forbid all outdoor rallies and political activities during the campaign period. All shows of mass support are to be banned and all political activities are to be held indoors.
The ban serves two purposes. First, it prevents dissident elements, such as the PDI majority that supports Megawati Sukarnoputri, from attempting to mobilise people for rallies organised by the government-recognised leadership but to support Megawati's claim on the leadership.
Secondly, it saves Suryadi from embarrassment if he calls a rally and Megawati decides to boycott it, in which case Suryadi would face the prospect of an extremely small turnout, (unless Golkar mobilised its paid gangs to turn up).
Meanwhile, the dictatorship has announced it has captured the head of the Yogyakarta chapter of Student Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia and a People's Democratic Party (PRD) activist from Solo. Green Left Weekly sources report that the Yogyakarta leader is not in jail, but has been ordered to report daily to the police.
The Attorney-General has also announced that 10 PRD activists will be tried under the anti-subversion law, which has the maximum penalty of death. He also stated that it would probably take three months of further investigation before the activists' papers would be handed over to the prosecution. There have been no recent announcements about the case of outspoken labour advocate, Muchtar Pakpahan, who is also to be charged with subversion and was an active supporter of Megawati.
The investigations of the PRD prisoners continue as more and more political figures are called in for questioning. Almost everybody in the political opposition has had dealings with the PRD during its emergence as an important force within the opposition over the past year. Mulyana Kusumah, director of the Legal Aid Institute, and Goenawan Mohammad, former editor of Tempo magazine, who worked with PRD chairman Budiman Sujatmiko and Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles' chairperson Dita Sari in the Free Elections Movement earlier this year, have both been called in.
Various figures from the other new party formed this year, the United Democracy Party, and people involved in the Indonesian Peoples' Assembly (MARI) have also been summonsed. The PRD was a member of MARI, a broad coalition of non-government organisations and political groups supporting Megawati in her struggle to reassert leadership over the PDI.