Greatest threat is injustice, not communism, Nasution says

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)