Violence likely to continue in 1999<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Violence is likely to continue during the year
\nas the nation has not proved itself able to tolerate and accept
\npolitical differences, observers said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The views were raised in a discussion at the Jakarta Legal Aid
\nOffice and in a presentation of political predictions by a team
\nof lecturers at the University of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The team of political scientists at UI said intolerance was
\ninherited from the New Order government of the fallen president
\nSoeharto.<\/p>\n
\"All political instruments were used to create uniformity in
\nsociety,\" said the team from the university's social and
\npolitical sciences department.<\/p>\n
The team said that the New Order regime had spent much time
\nusing violence as an instrument to create stability and boost the
\neconomy.<\/p>\n
It added that violence would also persist since authorities
\nstill use force to approach various problems in society.<\/p>\n
It also said that the current trend of mobilizing a great
\nnumber of people to achieve personal or group interests would
\nalso create the potential for violence.<\/p>\n
Mobilization of the masses during the campaign period in the
\ncoming election on June 7 would also be prone to violence.<\/p>\n
Economic hardship and power struggles among the political
\nelites would also potentially incite violence in the coming
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, political scientist Muhammad A.S. Hikam said that
\nviolence could be prevented if the nation's pro-reform leaders
\nwere willing to establish a political consensus.<\/p>\n
\"But, it seems to be difficult since the idea for a national
\ndialog, proposed by a number of leaders, has always been
\ntorpedoed by another group of people,\" Hikam told a discussion at
\nthe Indonesian Legal Aid Institute on Friday.<\/p>\n
The idea for a dialog -- gathering leaders inside and
\noutside the government -- was first aired by the chairman of the
\nNational Defense Institute, Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar.<\/p>\n
The call was taken up by Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, who
\nwarned last month that without such a dialog the country could be
\ndragged into \"a social revolution.\"<\/p>\n
The call had been welcomed by both the military and
\nlegislators. But President B.J. Habibie ruled it out and set up a
\nSecurity and Law Enforcement Council last month to handle
\nresponses to the crisis.<\/p>\n
The president said rather than a dialog, the focus should be
\non constitutional means, such as the legislature, and improving
\nthem if necessary.<\/p>\n
But the UI team said it was ABRI that could be \"a source of
\nsocial revolution\" if it chose to take sides in this year's
\nelections, which would lead it the elections to fail.<\/p>\n
In such chaos, they said, \"ABRI would take over power by
\ndeclaring the country to be in a sate of emergency and we would
\nreturn to a quasi-autocratic condition, or worse.\" (edt\/byg)<\/p>",
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