Gen. Feisal joins fray in PDI communist debate

Gen. Feisal joins fray in PDI communist debate

JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces (ABRI) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) were up at arms yesterday over allegations that up to 300 party activists have past communist links.

ABRI chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung claimed he had reasons to believe the allegation, but PDI members dismissed it as propaganda aimed at discrediting the party leadership under Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The allegation was launched last week by Jusuf Merukh, a notorious party rebel who leads a rival board set up by a group of disgruntled party leaders, some of whom have been dismissed.

Feisal said ABRI took the matter seriously and would investigate PDI leaders suspected of having connections with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was banned following its involvement in an abortive coup in 1965.

All political organizations make it requisite that anyone wanting to be a member must have no links with PKI or any other banned political organization.

Rumors that between 300 and 400 PDI activists from all over Indonesia have past communist links spread following ABRI's recent disputed finding that chairman of the West Java PDI, Djadjang Kurniadi, was suspected to have been involved in communist activities in the 1960s.

Feisal said "Correct!" when journalists asked him if there were leaders of provincial and regency PDI branches who may have past communists links.

He declined to say when ABRI would announce the results of its investigation into the suspects, Antara reported.

Troublemaker

Soerjadi, a former PDI chairman who sacked Jusuf in 1988 for attempting a leadership coup but reinstated him in 1993, questioned whether Jusuf had evidence to back his allegation.

"Jusuf Merukh is the one who has been making trouble for PDI since the 1970s and what's the use to have him in the party anyway," he said.

Soerjadi pointed out that if the allegation that 300 PDI leaders were communists turned out to be true, it was the security agency (Bakorstanas) which should be blamed in the first place because it was the one which "screened" them before they were installed.

For example, Djadjang was a civil servant until he retired in 1990. Therefore, he had undergone three screenings before he was sworn in for the PDI West Java chapter, he said.

"It's interesting that he is all of a sudden implicated in communist activities," said Soerjadi, who is also a deputy House Speaker.

Aberson Marle Sihaloho, an outspoken PDI legislator, said that allegations that many PDI members are communists were fabricated by those who did not want to see the party develop and become democratic.

He said that some PDI members had acted as government "agents" to undermine the party.

Colonel

In defense of the government, legislator Abu Hartono from the ABRI faction, said that it was possible for someone declared to have no links with PKI to be found otherwise at a later time.

Giving an illustration, the general recalled there was a colonel under his command who had to be dismissed because one of his parents was a communist.

The colonel, he said, had passed several screenings but then the officer's neighbors informed the authorities of his parent's ideological backgrounds, which turned out to be accurate.

"He (the colonel) had registered in another area where he lived with his relative and lied about his parent's ideological lines," Hartono said.(pan)