Activists criticize Assembly

JAKARTA (JP): A group of pro-democracy activists reproached the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) yesterday, demanding they "return" the people's sovereignty entrusted to them since the 1,000-member assembly has abused it for the interests of the government.

Mulyana Kusumah, a criminologist and member of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said the MPR had lost its legitimacy as the highest state institution representing the people because it could not prevent the government from committing what he said were violations of the 1945 Constitution.

The Assembly has abused the sovereignty it received from the people and has been a tool for the government to maintain the status quo, he said in a discussion at the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute here yesterday.

The discussion was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the National Committee for Democratic Struggle (KNPD), a group affiliated to the People's Democratic Party.

Three members of KNPD are currently in police detention. They are Faisol Riza and Rahardjo Waluyo Djati, both of the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta and Herman Hendrawan, a student at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java.

Mulyana charged that the New Order government, in its 32 years of national development, had created a widening social disparity in society.

He said that it was time "for the people to take action" to form a clean government and uphold democracy and law in the country.

"People's power is needed to strengthen the student movement to demand total reform even if it means paying a high price," he said.

Soothsayer Permadi concurred with Mulyana, saying that sovereignty needed to be returned to the people. But he maintained that it must be done in a peaceful manner.

"We do need people's power. We must do it peacefully and without anarchy," he said.

Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, a daughter of former president Sukarno, called on all students to continue their drive for political and economic reform.

"All of us should learn from the history of our former leaders to free the nation from colonialism. We need a peaceful movement and political struggle to free the nation from 'a new form of colonialism.' We should launch a peaceful movement because we don't want to see any victims... We are facing a powerful force," she said. (rms)