Gus Dur unyielding over communist ban

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)