Discriminatory act of the govt

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