Birth of PCPP natural: Sarwono
Birth of PCPP natural: Sarwono
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja said yesterday that the establishment of the
Association of Intellectuals for Pancasila Development (PCPP) was
a natural manifestation of public demand for wider social-
political participation.
"The educated community in Indonesia is growing. It's growing
horizontally, so more and more people are demanding
participation," he told journalists after meeting with President
Soeharto here yesterday.
PCPP, founded in July by staff lecturers of Jenderal Soedirman
University in Purwokerto, Central Java, has since received wide
support from intellectuals looking for such a forum but one that
is not based on religion.
Many political analysts see PCPP as a counter to the growing
strength and influence of the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals (ICMI), which is chaired by State Minister of
Research and Technology B.J. Habibie. A number of cabinet
ministers are also members of ICMI.
Sarwono dismissed the notion that one organization is designed
to challenge another.
"Looking at the conditions in our society, what is needed most
is an association which unites all forces, not to oppose the ones
in existence, but to create a layer which can bridge the ones
already there," he said.
The minister indicated that the president also gave his
support for the establishment of PCPP since it was part of the
people's legal right to form an organization.
He added that as society grows there will always be an
expanding tendency to form new organizations.
On Wednesday evening Sarwono hosted a gathering of PCPP
members at his home in South Jakarta where he called on PCPP
members to reconsider the usage of the word "intellectual" and
expressed his reluctance to head up the new association.
"I told them to find a young person who is energetic and is
really interested in the future of this. People like me have one
foot in the past," he said.
Sarwono further remarked that "I am not an intellectual, if
they care to use that term."
Though he did not directly object to the use of the term
"intellectual," Sarwono suggested they carefully weigh the
implications of using such a term and decide whether or not to
maintain it at the upcoming congress in November.
He reasoned that the term intellectual is usually given by
someone else and not self-applicable. (mds)