Govt called on to restore PKI members' basic rights

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The new administration of president-in-waiting Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will be responsible for restoring the basic rights of the families and relatives of suspected members of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), as part of a comprehensive reconciliation drive, historians say.

Anhar Gonggong and Asvi Warman Adam of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said families and relatives of the PKI members had been treated unfairly in the aftermath of an aborted coup on Sept. 30, 1965 -- which was linked to the party -- to the point where they had become outcasts in their own country.

"First and foremost, we must restore their economic rights, which they have been deprived of until now. The government must return assets belonging to suspected PKI members, which were seized by the military without the due process of the law," Anhar told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He also suggested that the incoming government strengthen the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to enable it to rehabilitate suspected members of the PKI, who fell victim to the arbitrary treatment of the New Order regime.

Anhar was responding to a question on what the government should do to improve the lives of suspected members of the PKI and their families, who lived in poverty under former president Soeharto's New Order regime.

With little fanfare, the government commemorated on Friday the Sanctity Day of state ideology Pancasila, which, under the New Order regime, was used to instill fear in the people of the latent threat of communism.

Under his command, Soeharto launched a purge of suspected members of the PKI, following the abduction and murders of seven Army generals on Sept. 30, 1965.

Hundreds of thousands of people reportedly vanished or disappeared in the purge, while tens of thousands were banished to remote islands in the country. Thousands of others sought exile abroad.

In the years following the fall of Soeharto, general conditions were less hostile to the suspected PKI members and their families. Earlier this year, the Constitutional Court restored the political rights of those linked with the communist party by allowing them to vote and contest the legislative election.

Asvi shared Anhar's view, saying that improvements to the lives of alleged PKI members had, thus far, been inadequate and transpired only on paper.

"Indeed, there have been revocations of regulations that sanction discriminatory treatment against them, but the existing legislations still bar them from running for office, from the presidency to the lowest village level," he told the Post.

Asvi said compensation for New Order victims could be disbursed as scholarships for their children, or as credit to start a business.

He said the road to equality between ordinary citizens and those who were linked to the communist party would be a "tortuous" one.

"The Soeharto regime instilled its view of events on Sept. 30 for more than thirty years. We may need half that time to restore the bad image of PKI members that was cultivated," he said.