Greatest threat is injustice, not communism, Nasution says

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's most senior military figure and survivor of the 1965 failed communist coup, Gen. (ret) Abdul Haris Nasution, said social injustice, not communism, was the greatest threat to the nation's survival.

"Communism, though as an ideology remains a threat, fails to attract people anymore," he remarked.

On the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the failed putsch, Nasution said the measure of Indonesia's successful development rested on its achievement in battling social injustice.

Speaking after receiving a courtesy call from Chief of Jakarta Regional Military Command Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Nasution said social injustice was now the main cause of dissatisfaction.

"Unsolved social injustice can be exploited to disrupt the country's stability and challenge our nation's unity," Nasution said at his residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

He dismissed the widely believed view that communism was still the country's number-one threat and enemy.

He pointed out that even in Russia, only 10 percent of its population belonged to the Communist Party.

Nasution was one of several senior generals targeted for assassination by the now banned Indonesian Communist Party on the night of Sept. 30, 1965.

He managed to escape, but his five-year-old daughter Ade Irma Suryani was shot and killed by soldiers who were trying to assassinate him.

Nasution's view of social injustice as the primary threat to the nation won strong support from three political observers: Roeslan Abdoelgani, Amien Rais and Nurcholish Madjid.

"Injustice is the most fertile medium for extreme ideology, like communism, to develop," Roeslan said.

However, he remarked that communism remained a threat despite its waning influence.

"We must remain alert to any extreme ideology in such an unpredictable situation," he said.

Amien Rais was unsure whether the ideology still prevailed in the country.

"Communism will only develop here if the widening gap between members of our nation remains unsolved," Amien, a social and political science lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said yesterday during a discussion on the failed coup.

Separately, Nurcholish also said social injustice was a problem that had to be urgently addressed.

He did not speak on the prevalence of communist ideology in society, saying only that communism stuttered the growth of democracy.

In contrast, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono maintained that the nation was still prone to such extreme ideology.

"The masses are basically irrational and emotional, easily provoked into violence," Moerdiono told participants of the discussion.

"Communist principles and tactics can easily be adopted and then adapted by extreme organizations in their activities here," he said.

"Some recently published books, written by prominent nationalist-communist figures of the late 1950s and early 1960s, show that they have not repented," he said.

"They continuously undermine what the government has done in the past 30 years," he added.

The latest example, he said, was last year's maneuver by a group of youth activists, who not only used communist-like terms and vision, but also mimicked communist actions in their activities.

Moerdiono did not specify the group of youth activists, but observers believed that he was referring to the Democratic People's Party (PRD), whose leaders were convicted of subversion early this year. (imn)