A matter of rights

In past years anyone who was branded as a member or supporter of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) had to face death, whether physically or socially. The PKI mark was also a most effective weapon in the hands of those who were in power to dispose of anyone who differed in their opinions.

Now, after 34 years, that stigma is beginning to fade. Legislators in the House of Representatives discussing new political draft laws have decided to allow relatives of former members of the PKI, formerly barred from the legislature, to be elected. Finally, the political stigma that lasted for more than three decades is being exorcised.

Indonesian society at present is entering a new era of enlightenment. There is a very strong feeling that the present reading of our history needs to be totally corrected. As part of this correction, the institutionalized and doctrinaire instruction of our Pancasila national ideology has been discontinued.

After the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, animosity among communities of people on the basis of ideology no longer exists. Capitalism, liberalism and socialism now coexist as open and tolerant ideologies. It would therefore be most inhumane for us to use the Pancasila ideology to which we subscribe as a wedge to create feelings of hostility towards other ideologies, including communism; or worse, to use Pancasila as a verbal- ideological instrument to incarcerate our own fellow citizens.

The extension of political rights to family members of ex-PKI members and supporters must be seen as a realization of their human rights, not as an ideological inconsistency. The use of ideology to coerce one's own citizens leads to totalitarianism, while a complete negation of it leads to anarchy.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta