Intelligence chief warns of provocation
JAKARTA (JP): State Intelligence Coordinating Body chief Lt. Gen. (ret) Moetojib called on the public Saturday to be wary of any attempts by groups or individuals to make waves before next year's presidential election.
The People's Consultative Assembly will convene to elect a new president and adopt new state policy guidelines next March.
Moetojib said that the interest groups that have tried to unconstitutionally change the country's political system would not stop until after the presidential election.
"Or maybe they won't stop until they achieve their target," he said.
When pressed to name one of these groups, Moetojib named the Democratic People's Party -- an obscure organization whose core leaders have been jailed for subversion.
Nine PRD leaders were sentenced in April to between 18 months and 13 years in jail for subversion. PRD's chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko received the stiffest sentence because the court found him guilty of discrediting the New Order government under President Soeharto and rejecting the Armed Forces' sociopolitical role.
But Moetojib refused to say whether there were any disgruntled currently employed or retired officials involved in unconstitutional activities.
Post-election political tension has generally died down but rumors of impending riots persist in East Java. Authorities there said Thursday that they had heard rumors that riots would start simultaneously in Madura, Jember, Situbondo and Pasuruan on July 7.
These are all United Development Party (PPP) strongholds and have already seen violence this year in the form of clashes between PPP and government-backed Golkar supporters.
"All of us are part of the big Indonesian family. So why do we attack each other and burn each others' property?" Moetojib asked.
Moetojib said interest groups worked by fanning people's dissatisfaction with the political system to a point at which they were ready to resort to violence.
He cited as an example the Tasikmalaya riot last December, which was started with a rumor that a teacher from a nearby Moslem boarding school had been tortured to death by police. The rumor proved false.
Moetojib said people should realize that Indonesia was a multi-ethnic country with diverse cultures that could be exploited to create chaos.
"We are many ethnic groups living on thousands of islands, with different religions and traditions," he said. "We do not want riots ever again. It is the people's responsibility to help prevent violence," he said.
Many Indonesian cities have been affected by politically and religiously motivated riots in the past few months.
In Java the cities of Situbondo, Tasikmalaya and Rengasdengklok were badly hit this year as were the West Kalimantan capital Pontianak and nearby Sanggau Ledo. (imn)