Ideology propagator attacks policy on ex-political prisoners
Ideology propagator attacks policy on ex-political prisoners
JAKARTA (JP): A senior state ideology authority says the
government's policy of stamping "ET" on the identity cards of
people once detained for alleged communist activity is without
legal basis and must be stopped.
The same change was demanded again yesterday by the Indonesian
Legal Aid Institute, which has long demanded that the government
scrap the policy.
ET stands for Ex-Tapol, or ex-political detainee, the
government's label for activists in the Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) that was banned after its coup attempt in 1965.
"If the ET were put on the identity cards of those convicted
in court, it would be no problem, really," said Poedjo Moeljono,
deputy chief of the Pancasila Propagation Board (BP7).
He said the ET mark is found mostly on the identity cards of
the alleged communists that the government exiled to Buru Island
in Maluku without trial.
It is rare for an official to criticize the government's
policy on former political detainees.
Last week, Roeslan Abdulgani, a former BP7 chief, also urged
the government to drop the policy and give "clemency" in honor of
Indonesia's 50th anniversary.
"It is high time that we, as a nation, forgive the sins of our
own people,"" Roeslan said as quoted by Antara.
Moeljono called on the government to uphold the supremacy of
law and to remember that people suspected of having communist
links were exiled to Buru island without trial.
The institute's director, Luhut M.P. Pangaribuan, told The
Jakarta Post that Moeljono and Roeslan's comments were "very
encouraging" for those who have been seeking to abolish the
policy.
"Every Indonesian should have forgotten the tragedy (the 1965
coup attempt by the PKI) and they should build up the nation
without hatred," he said.
The Legal Aid Institute has organized three seminars in less
than a year to gain support for its campaign to have the ET
policy scrapped for good.
Luhut said the policy has had an "excessive" social impact on
those marked ET and on their relatives as well, who also receive
discriminatory treatment by the bureaucracy.
"Government employees will ask, before they decide to marry,
if their fiance is politically clean. If the answer is no, they
will break their engagement or run into trouble," he said.
Luhut, Moeljono and Roeslan were of the opinion that the
government should not make security the only consideration in
handling ex-political detainees.
"The security consideration may have been relevant in the past
but no longer is since the situation has changed," Luhut said.
Moeljono said that the security approach taken toward the ex-
detainees should be phased out in favor of a more humanitarian
approach.
"Just use your head: If it was true that one's father was once
involved in some forbidden political activities, on what grounds
should his children be implicated?" he said.
He maintained that the offspring of political detainees must
not be mistreated for the ideological sins of their ancestors.
(pan)