Coffin fails to impress cleric

Coffin fails to impress cleric

JAKARTA: Tuty Alawwiyah, leader of a Golkar-affiliated Moslem
organization, is unimpressed by people using coffins to dramatize
concern for the "death of democracy".

The latest person to carry a mock coffin in a street protest
is playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, whose play on the murder of labor
heroine Marsinah has been banned.

Tuty, who chairs the Coordinating Body for Taklim Committee,
said using mock coffins in demonstrations was "unethical" and
"not educational".

"Coffins are sacred and people cannot just use them as play
things," she was quoted by Antara as saying.

Ratna carried a mock coffin on the roof of a Kijang van around
South Jakarta for about six hours last Friday before police
arrested her near her home in Tebet, East Jakarta.

She said she admired the Moslem-based United Development
Party, and wanted to remind people to keep fighting for democracy
before it died. (pan)