'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)