'Ex-prisoners not a major threat'
'Ex-prisoners not a major threat'
JAKARTA (JP): Former senior cabinet minister Emil Salim says
the threat of a communist come-back in Indonesia would more
likely come from socio-economic conditions than from former
political prisoners.
Emil, an economist by training, said yesterday that poverty
and economic disparities would be the main factors behind any
rebirth of communism in Indonesia.
Speaking before Indonesian diplomats and senior members of the
Armed Forces, he said Indonesia should be more concerned with
wiping out these social variants rather than fearing the release
of any aging political prisoners associated with the 1965
communist coup.
"The (communist) ideas can only survive in precarious
conditions. That is what we have to work hard against," said
Emil, who was a Soeharto cabinet member for over 20 years.
His remarks were made in response to the issue of whether or
not President Soeharto should free three men convicted for the
1965 coup and who are now serving life terms in jail.
The three men -- Soebandrio, Omar Dhani and A. Latief, now in
their 70s and 80s -- have applied for a second clemency from
Soeharto, which, if granted, will likely lead to their freedom.
The military has cautioned that their release might fuel the
latent danger of a communist revival.
"I do not see it (their release) as something dangerous, but
this is a personal opinion," Emil said. "Can we be sensible in
looking at this issue without pointing every time that this one
or that one is a communist."
"The danger is not Pramoedya Ananta Toer, but the policies
which create the disparities," he said referring to the novelist
whose books the government has banned for supposed communist
content.
Pramoedya on Thursday was named this year's recipient of the
Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature.
Emil disagreed with the view that sometimes the truth has to
be repressed for the sake of national stability. "If the truth is
not acknowledged, that becomes the source of instability." (mds)