Armed Forces warns against 'adventurers'
SEMARANG (JP): A top military official has warned against "political adventurers" in the 1997 general elections, outlining the risks he feels these people pose.
Assistant to Armed Forces (ABRI) chief for social and political affairs Maj. Gen. Soewarno Adiwijoyo defined political adventurers as people who have no loyalty toward any of the existing political grouping, and tend to abstain from voting.
"Students and youths should not become political adventurers out of frustration that things are not the way they want them to be," he said in a discussion on the general elections at Diponegoro University here yesterday.
Representing ABRI Chief of Social-Political Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, Soewarno said that the elections would bring Indonesia closer to the ideals of independence in 1945, if they go off successfully.
A botched general election, however, will cost Indonesia a high price, politically, socially and economically, he said.
He went on to describe a number of conditions which might threaten the polls. He also called on the young not to be trapped into thinking that any opposition to the government's stance is democratic.
"Don't think that everything that is in line with the government's stance is therefore utterly devoid of idealism," he said.
On a separate occasion yesterday, in Bandung, West Java, hundreds of students of Pasundan University held a demonstration on their campus.
Waving placards and unfurling banners, the students called on he government to abolish the laws on political activities, and to impose a limitation on presidential terms.
In a separate development, another top military official spoke out, giving his view on the general elections and the role of the Armed Forces.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Hartono said in Surabaya, East Java, yesterday that members of the Armed Forces should have the political right to vote and to be chosen.
"ABRI members are just like other citizens. They have a right to vote and be elected in the general elections," he said in a discussion held by the East Java chapter of the Indonesian Journalists Association.
"The list of people who are denied voting rights has been decided on; those involved in the attempted coup in 1965, who are therefore not - or not yet - allowed by the government to vote, and convicted criminals" he pointed out.
Reiterating a previous statement, he said that ABRI members will clearly channel their political aspirations through the ruling Golkar.
"You don't need to ask about the political aspirations of ABRI members. You know already," he told the reporters who questioned the ABRI stance on general elections and its sociopolitical function.
Hartono created a controversy at a Golkar rally in Central Java last month by saying that all military members are Golkar supporters, or cadres. The public had been led to believe that it was a neutral force.
He said that the military's socio-political and security roles are guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution, law No. 20/1982 on the State Defense and Security, as well as law No. 1/1985 on General Elections. (har/15/17/imn/swe)