House enters debate on revolution fund
House enters debate on revolution fund
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives stepped into the
renewed debate yesterday over the claim that a soon-to-be-
released political prisoner is responsible for the billions of
dollars in a "revolution fund" that reportedly went missing more
than 30 years ago.
Deputy House Speaker Ismail Hasan Metareum said the
legislative body would find out if the fund really existed and if
it did, will determine where it is now and how it can be
recovered.
"Everything about the funds remains in the dark," he told
reporters yesterday.
Metareum called on the public to allow the political prisoner,
Soebandrio, to get out of jail and explain what he knows about
the disputed funds.
The debate on the alleged existence of the funds was resumed
last week by Suhardiman, the chief of Soksi, a military-sponsored
labor organization, which helped found the Golkar party to
counter the growing influence of the communists in 1964.
The issue was first raised in the 1980s, also by Suhardiman.
In 1987, the government, through Minister/State Secretary
Moerdiono, publicly conceded that "it is hard to track the funds
down but the government will keep trying."
The funds under dispute were reportedly raised by president
Sukarno to finance various revolution projects, including the war
to recapture West Irian (now Irian Jaya) and the confrontation
with Malaysia.
Estimates on the sum of the money vary from between US$135
million to US$16 billion.
The debate flared again just a few days after the government
announced it planned to release Soebandrio, a former deputy prime
minister, and two other political prisoners linked to the bloody
1965 coup attempt. The other two are Air Force vice marshal Omar
Dhani, 71, and police brigadier general Raden Soegeng Soetarto,
77. They are to be released after Aug. 15.
Chief of the Armed Forces (ABRI) socio-political affairs
department Lt. Gen. M. Ma'roef called on the government to
investigate the issue.
Oei Tjoe Tat, former state minister of the Dwikora Cabinet in
1963, said yesterday that the revolution fund was collected from
major businessmen, who were required to pay five percent of their
profits to the government.
He said, however, that he had no idea of the whereabouts, let
alone the amount, at present.
He also said that there were only three persons with the
authority to withdraw the revolution fund -- President Sukarno
and two deputy prime ministers, Soebandrio and Chairul Saleh.
Currently only Soebandrio is still alive.
Stamp
In response to the reporters' questions about the proposal to
revoke the policy of stamping "ET" (meaning former political
prisoner) on the identification cards of political detainees and
their children, Metareum said the Armed Forces had the authority
to decide the matter.
Mashuri, former minister of information and education, said
yesterday that the government should revoke the policy because
the children of the political prisoners are not responsible for
what their parents did.
"Putting the ET stamps on their children's ID cards is like
punishing them without due legal process," he said. (imn)