Indonesian opposition gets organised
By Max Lane
The campaign in Indonesia against the closures, in late June, of the country's three major news weeklies has spurred on discussion on how best to advance the development of an organised political opposition.
Centres of opposition opinion have long existed in Indonesia. But, until very recently, none had undertaken the task of building an opposition with real political strength.
The Petition of 50, leaders of moderate and conservative political parties suppressed by the Suharto regime and sympathetic retired military leaders, has for some time issued critical statements. But it has never tried to organise more broadly to build up its strength.
The same applies to the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), probably the most effective and influential centre of democratic opinion during the Suharto period.
In May, a network of young activists, mainly students and workers, established the Peoples Democratic Union (Persatuan Rakyat Demokratik — PRD). It announced it wanted to recruit members from all sectors of society and started to establish branches throughout the country. This initiative is the first attempt to build a activist-based organisation. It is expected that some student and worker organisations will also affiliate to PRD.
The PRD's base is the network of the student, worker and peasant sector organisations and alliances between these forces. Though still relatively small, these groups have been able to play a significant role in the recent campaign against the media closures.
Activists from the Students Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia (SSDI), aligned with the PRD, also participated in the protests against the media closures and took the initiative to launch the hunger strike in the LBH grounds which was subsequently broken up by police.
Following the media closures and protest campaign, the idea of building a politically strong opposition is now being discussed in other circles. This is reflected in an important interview in a recent issue of the student newsletter News from Pijar around Indonesia (KDPSI) with Hendardi, the Director of Information and Special Programs at the LBHI.
After describing the protest campaigns against the media bans, Hendardi added, "Unfortunately, we do not yet have an organised opposition. Aside from government prohibitions against an opposition, we also have problems created by prolonged internal problems.
"The task of the opposition is political control of government actions which are wrong. I think it is already time for us to lay the basis for such an opposition, one which is organised so that the government is no longer able to play with the law however it likes, and act as judge and jury, allowing no defence."
According to Hendardi, only an organised opposition can provide the basis for a struggle to win the freedom to organise, freedom of opinion, press freedom and a free judiciary.
"The strength of ideas and opinions cannot be compared to political strength — political organisations (the opposition, the authorities, the bureaucracy, the military and others). It is only possible to apply freedom if it is struggled for with political strength."
Hendardi acknowledged that such an approach posed risks. "Being arrested, detained for years ... the possibility of being tortured and killed ... I too am afraid of [this] ... But I also see that not all people blindly submit to the authorities. There are many protests and passive resistance for freedom of opinion."
LBH has become the focus for the broad range of dissident groups' and non-government organisation opinion. If Hendardi's interview reflects a new resolve from these forces to build an organised organisation, it will be a major boost to all alternative political formations.
The recent formation of Solidarity in Indonesia for Press Freedom (Solidaritas Indonesia Untuk Pembebasan Pers — SIUPP), the broadest-ever coalition of opposition groups, with members from LBH, Petition of 50 and PRD, indicate that the opposition forces are making significant advances.