Communist can infiltrate ABRI

SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): A senior military officer says that even the Armed Forces (ABRI), with their tight security arrangements, are vulnerable to communist infiltration.

Maj. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, assistant to the ABRI chief of social and political affairs, said yesterday that the communists have insidious methods for penetrating virtually any organization, including ABRI and religious groups.

The West Java branch of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) reportedly took offense at Syarwan's earlier statement that the Moslem organization had once been infiltrated by members of the now- banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

"With its large membership, can anybody guarantee that the NU is free from communist infiltration?" Syarwan asked during a seminar at Diponegoro University here. "Even ABRI, with its tight security systems, can be penetrated."

The NU currently has some 34 million members and supporters, most of them in rural areas, making it the largest organization in Indonesia.

Syarwan denied yesterday that he had "accused" the NU of having communist links.

Syarwan told a seminar in Jakarta on Saturday that, in the 1960s, elements of the PKI had infiltrated various organizations, including the Sarekat Islam and the NU. The PKI was one of the largest political groups in Indonesia before it was banned in March 1966, six months after an abortive coup attempt which the Army blamed on the communists.

The NU's West Java branch said in a statement made available to the press early this week that its members rejected the allegations, as well as Syarwan's statement categorizing the NU as an "extreme right-wing" organization.

"The NU is anti-communist and it is impossible for it to compromise with communist teachings," said the statement, issued in Bandung, capital of West Java.

Syarwan said last Saturday that it was nothing new for PKI members to join "extreme right-wing" organizations.

"Long before their rebellion, PKI members had experience in infiltrating mass and religious organizations. They entered the NU, student and labor organizations," Syarwan said.

Nahdlatul Ulama, which means "the awakening of the religious teachers", has been both a political party and a religious organization since its founding in 1926.

The ulemas organization said Syarwan's statement was misleading and might harm national unity. They demanded that Syarwan apologize to all NU members for making the remarks. (har/31)