AGO mulls banning new communist book

JAKARTA: Authorities here said Thursday they are deciding whether a new autobiography by the daughter of a former communist leader contains outlawed Marxist ideology and should be banned.

"We are currently investigating the contents of the book and whether it can be read publicly," said Barman Zahir, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

Vice President Hamzah Haz - who heads the country's largest Muslim party - alleges that the recently published book "I Am Proud to be a Child of the Indonesia Communist Party" (PKI) contains Marxist ideology and has urged prosecutors to get it banned.

Its author, Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariyati, denies it propagates communism and says the book documents the persecution of her family by the right-wing military government of ex- dictator Soeharto in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ribka's father was an activist in the Central Java branch of the now-defunct PKI. As a successful businessman, he also supported the party financially.

He was arrested and spent seven years without trial in jail, where he was repeatedly tortured. --AP