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)