'Four forces' seen vying for power

JAKARTA (JP): The influential Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) said on Wednesday there were four social forces involved in the political power struggle, including the remnants of Soeharto's New Order regime.

YLBHI chairman Bambang Widjojanto, at the 28th anniversary celebration of the foundation, identified those who sought to revive Soeharto's influence in society as "restorationists". He said this was evident in the fact that so far the law could not reach the former president.

"This is evident in how strong the former president's political position still is... (and how) the law is unable to touch him, and how there are still certain groups who give him offerings in exchange for his blessing and 'power'," Bambang said.

The other three groups that he mentioned were the status quo, the reformists and the "ambiguous" group.

The status quo were those interested in supporting and maintaining current President B.J. Habibie in power. "The support is not meant to build a legitimacy for Habibie per se ...but often because the supporters believe they can obtain their maximal political agenda and interests under Habibie."

Bambang identified the foundation as part of the third force, the reformists, who were dissatisfied with current conditions and continued to campaign for a new, democratic Indonesia.

"The fourth force is the 'ambiguous', who... want reform but because of certain social and political positions, cannot free themselves from political constraints and so choose to stay within power (status quo)," he said.

The mysterious murder spree in East Java towns and the practice of blaming communists for various social and political problems, he said, should be put in the frame of the four forces' struggle for power.

"Politics here has yet to be free from laying blame, it is still a savage one... (as evident) in practices of slandering, slaughtering or scapegoating. These are the faces of our political configuration."

Since its establishment on Oct. 28, 1970, YLBHI has sided with needy people in facing the law. Cases it has handled have tended to be politically high profile, including the July 27, 1996 bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

Among prominent figures who attended the Wednesday ceremony were Adnan Buyung Nasution, H.C. Princen, Moh. Assegaf, Ali Sadikin, Mudji Sutrisno, Sri Bintang Pamungkas, Munir, Hotma Siahaan and Ruhut Sitompul. (edt)