Gus Dur unyielding over communist ban

CANCUN, Mexico (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid rebuffed critics at home on Tuesday, insisting that his controversial proposal to lift a 34-year ban on communism would bring about a national reconciliation in Indonesia.

Gus Dur, as the President is popularly called, arrived in the Mexican resort town on Monday on his way to a developing world gathering in communist-Cuba. A meeting with Cuban leader Fidel Castro is also on the cards during his stay in Havana.

His close confidante, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab, told reporters in the presidential entourage that the proposal to end the 1966 ban was based on the spirit of reconciliation.

The ban was imposed in the wake of an abortive coup attempt in 1965 blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). It is believed that more than 500,000 suspected communists were killed in the Army-led campaign to quash the party and its supporters in 1966.

"Gus Dur believes that it is time to start reconciliation efforts in Indonesia because too many innocent people were killed at that time," Alwi said.

Gus Dur's National Awakening Party (PKB) faction is virtually alone in supporting his proposal, with other major parties opposing the plan to lift the ban on communism, Marxism and Leninism.

Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Izha Mahendra, who chairs the Crescent Star Party, has kept his distance from the President's viewpoint, saying the proposal was not a government policy.

On Tuesday, however, two other members of the Cabinet spoke in defense of the plan in Jakarta.

Minister of Research and Technology A.S. Hikam said the ban on Marxism and Communism ran counter to the concept of academic freedom, Antara reported.

"The ban has prevented our scientists from learning Marxism. We have no experts on the subject," Hikam said.

The ban's clause saying Marxism can only be studied under close guidance was simply ridiculous, he said.

Because of this deprivation, Indonesia did not have any expert capable of analyzing the novels by Pramudya Ananta Toer and had to seek the help of Malaysian researchers, he said.

Pramudya, Indonesia's most renowned writer, was one of thousands sentenced to hard labor in the wake of the anticommunist campaign in the late 1960s.

Hikam said repealing the ban on communist would also eliminate existing discriminatory practices against people who were suspected of having links with the banned party.

He said the President's critics had politicized the proposal instead of using it as material for public discourse.

He said the decision to repeal the decree banning communism was in the hands of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and not the President.

"If the MPR did not lift the decree, it would not matter to Gus Dur," Hikam said.

Minister of Religious Affairs Tholhah Hasan also said the President came to the conclusion to scrap the ban because of his concerns at the injustices that many people had suffered.

As a democrat, Gus Dur would not impose his will on others if they disagreed with his proposal, Tholhah was quoted by Antara as saying in Semarang.

The minister also suggested that critics' fears of a communist return in Indonesia could be addressed by enacting a new MPR decree, without the discriminatory practices. (byg/emb)