Gus Dur turns to the 'silent majority'

Gus Dur turns to the 'silent majority'

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid went over the heads
of the country's politicians on Saturday and turned directly to
the public for support over his proposal to lift a 34-year-old
ban against communism in Indonesia.

During a 45-minute television talk show broadcast nationwide,
the President spelled out his reasons for seeking to end the ban.

Gus Dur, as the President is popularly called, said he
believed that the majority of people did not care, let alone
oppose, his proposal, and that opposition so far had only come
from a handful of the country's political elite.

But he warned the political elites that ignoring the "silent
majority" could cost them votes in the next election in 2004.

The President has defied critics by continuing with his
campaign to have the ban on communism lifted by the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) in its next seating in August.

Many political parties have rejected the idea, and Muslim
groups have taken to the streets to air their opposition, some
calling on the MPR to impeach the moderate Muslim cleric in
August.

One protest, involving several hundred people, was staged
along Jakarta's main thoroughfare, Jl. Thamrin, on Saturday just
hours before the taping of the television show.

Gus Dur said he was pushing ahead with his proposal to meet
his constitutional duties to uphold human rights, respect freedom
of expression and restore the rule of law in this country.

"Whether the MPR heeds my call is up to them. I have done my
duty," he said in the discussion held by state-run TVRI, which
also involved cultural observer Mohammad Sobari.

"You cannot ban a teaching. You, or society can oppose it, but
the state does not have the authority to outlaw a teaching.

"Once you empower the state to ban a teaching, there is no
stopping it. That would be infringing human rights," he said.

Sobari added that it would be impossible to ban a teaching in
this age when people have TV or access to the Internet directly
from their own living rooms.

The ban was imposed by the Provisional MPR (MPRS) in 1966, one
year after a coup attempt, which the Army has since blamed on the
now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

"The MPRS decree is not a sacred document," Gus Dur said.

He recalled many other instances when MPR decrees had been
revoked, including the 1976 integration into Indonesia of East
Timor, and the lifetime presidency title for Sukarno enacted in
the early 1960s.

He said he was puzzled that the revocation of the East Timor
decree last year, representing a loss of territory, did not evoke
as much outcry as his proposal to end the communist ban.

Gus Dur said that although he was raised in an environment
that was so anticommunist, he would not endorse any government
ban against the PKI.

"I fear that most of the killing in 1966 may have been
committed by Nahdlatul Ulama," said Gus Dur, the former chairman
of Indonesia's largest Muslim social organization, referring to a
bloodbath unleashed by the anti-PKI sentiments in the aftermath
of the abortive coup.

"It's time we change ... It's time we grew up," he said,
adding that this was the last time he would addressed the issue
until his speech in the MPR in August. (prb/emb)