Discriminatory act of the govt

The government's decision to release Dr. Muchtar Pakpahan and Dr. Sri Bintang Pamungkas from prison has made me both happy and sad. I am happy because it suggests that Habibie's administration is committed to total reform within the bounds of the constitution. However, one gets the impression that this good- will gesture is discriminatory.

Muchtar Pakpahan is known to have leftist leanings and received great attention from the government before he was set free. In the meantime, Moslem political convicts have not received any attention, let alone been given priority for parole, despite many having been imprisoned for large parts of their lives.

Community members, including those who claim to be pro- democracy and pro-reform, have enthusiastically welcomed the release of Pakpahan and Sri Bintang and treated them to the kind of reception reserved for heroes. The mass media has also been swept up in the euphoria.

Let me suggest to both Muchtar Pakpahan and Sri Bintang that you don't get carried away with all this attention and begin to act like late, and therefore uncalled for, heroes. To the best of my knowledge, while in prison, these two "figures" (particularly Sri Bintang) spent a lot of time crying because they couldn't bear their cell conditions, which were worse than their own bathrooms.

As for the mass media, it has a responsibility to report news in a balanced manner and not make a coconut tree out of a bean sprout.

I also wish to call on the government not to assume a discriminatory stance. Moslem political convicts are subject to much more flagrant human rights violations than Muchtar Pakpahan and Sri Bintang ever were.

The torture and suffering inflicted on Moslem political convicts has also been worse than that experienced by the kidnapped political activists, including Pius, Desmond, Heryanto Taslam, Nuku Sulaiman. Furthermore, for a large stretch of their captivity the National Commission on Human Rights did not exist. Even after the commission was established, inadequate attention was given to Moslem political convicts.

The ever-so-respectable members of the National Commission on Human Rights are in fact a bunch of cowards. They do not defend human rights in earnest. They know that the "movements" which Moslem political convicts were imprisoned for their links to were invented by the state security apparatus, particularly during the times when Ali Moertopo, Sudomo, Benny Moerdani and Try Sutrisno were in office.

The government should unconditionally release these Moslem political convicts and cease to force those already granted parole to report regularly to the authorities as is the current practice. Unless this is done, the deep feeling of injustice will persist, and this, obviously, will incur the wrath of Moslems.

As a former political convict, I believe that now is the right time to square accounts with the underlings of the New Order regime because they have done many cruel things to Moslems in the course of their dirty political practices.

However, the door of repentance is still open to you. But we need proof.

UMAR ABDUH

Jakarta