Gus Dur's friends urge his return to civil movement

Gus Dur's friends urge his return to civil movement

JAKARTA (JP): Friends of deposed president Abdurrahman "Gus
Dur" Wahid urged him on Tuesday to leave the presidential palace
and return to the civilian movement to guard democracy and
freedom of speech.

Journalist Goenawan Mohammad, along with other prodemocracy
figures, called on Gus Dur to leave the presidential palace with
pride and return to his own home in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.

"Should it be necessary, we will pick him up from the palace
and accompany him to his home. Welcome to the civilian movement,
Gus. This is where you belong.

"Staying at a palace without effective power is pointless,"
Goenawan, a founder of Tempo weekly news magazine and a long-time
friend of Gus Dur, said during a media conference.

Also at the media conference were former members of the
National Mandate Party (PAN) Faisal Basri and Bara Hasibuan,
University of Indonesia political observer Eep Syaefulloh Fatah,
stage actress and women's activist Ratna Sarumpaet and a number
of other activists.

Eep urged new President Megawati Soekarnoputri to avoid the
use of force to remove Abdurrahman from the palace, suggesting
she take a personal approach as "they used to be brother and
sister".

Goenawan added that Megawati should remember that her
ascension to the presidency indirectly resulted from the civilian
movement in 1998, not from the military's role in politics.

Although he said Megawati's rise to the presidency was filled
with legal flaws, Goenawan praised the fact that the process was
free of violence, especially on the part of Abdurrahman's
supporters.

The former president's supporters remained camped outside the
presidential palace on Tuesday, though their number had decreased
sharply from about 2,000 on Monday to several dozen. Most of
those outside the palace are from East Java, Abdurrahman's
political stronghold.

Separately in Yogyakarta, dozens of students from the Network
of Anti-New Order People rallied on the campus of Gadjah Mada
University.

They voiced concern Megawati's appointment as president would
harm the reform movement, since her election was engineered by
the remnants of the corrupt New Order regime.

In a statement, the group said the Golkar Party and the
Indonesian Military (TNI) would ask Megawati for political
concessions and that this would further damage the reform
movement.

The students therefore demanded that the Golkar Party be
disbanded. "As long as Golkar is left untouched, the reform
movement will always be running up against a strong wall. The old
players will always use Golkar as their vehicle to stop the
movement," the group's coordinator, Tito, said during the rally.

Meanwhile, 64 non-governmental organizations in Yogyakarta
called for a snap general election as the best way to resolve the
country's political turmoil. They said the recently ended Special
Session of the People's Consultative Assembly had been marred by
political manipulation and power games.

"The people's sovereignty has been marginalized by the
interests of a small group of political elite," Yogyakarta NGO
Forum chairman Martinus Ujianto told The Jakarta Post.

The forum blasted the legislators for using the House of
Representatives and the Assembly as tools to gain power, while
crucial problems such as the conflicts in several provinces went
unresolved.

"The House and the Assembly are politically illegitimate. We
have to fight for the people's sovereignty by holding a snap
election within one year at the most," the forum said in a
statement.

The forum also called for amendments to the 1945 Constitution,
particularly the addition of articles stipulating a direct
presidential election and the elimination of the TNI and the
police from the legislature.

In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, students from the
Communication Network of Makassar Student Bodies declared on
Monday night their acceptance of the new President, though they
rejected her style of leadership.

The students also sent a message to Megawati urging her to
continue the reform agenda and not to become caught up in
political horse-trading. (23/27/44/tso/bby)