Govt called on to restore PKI members' basic rights

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.