Managing demos

Managing demos

Jakarta has been submerged by student demonstrations for
almost a year and nobody can say when they will end. Some believe
that since there is an ubiquitous lack of sincerity on the part
of the government in carrying out reform, students need to stay
on the alert and continue their demonstrations.

The students, despite the hecticness of their days, are still
full of stamina and determination because of their newfound
freedom, and demonstrating in today's political climate is the
most effective way to introduce change. Many of them also believe
they have a moral obligation to push the authorities toward the
change so desperately needed, at least until a clean general
election is held. That will be in June next year.

And the students have every reason to be optimistic. Looking
back to the early days of their protests, students have gained
victories in many sectors, for example in compelling the members
of the People's Consultative Assembly in their recent Special
Session to listen to the people's aspirations and injecting some
kind of boldness into the Habibie administration to start
questioning former president Soeharto about his alleged
corruption and abuses of power.

However, older members of society are also asking when the
demonstrations will be managed in such a way as to not cause so
many inconveniences to the public in general. There have been
traffic jams, especially in strategic parts of the capital and
daily activities have been seriously hampered. Many people ill
enough to require hospitalization have found it impossible to get
to the hospital quickly for necessary treatment, and many people
booked on flights have failed to catch their planes.

This means that those in charge of security need to consider a
better way of managing demonstrations so that the students get
their messages across while at the same time business is not
disrupted.

Jakarta, the seat of the central government, could establish a
special area where students could express their feelings, or
special roads or lanes could be designated for them to stage
demonstrations.

But in no way can the youth of Indonesia be expected to stop
their activities in the immediate future since they, just like
everyone else, have a right to suspect that the present
administration will manipulate any student inactivity for its own
ends.

On other hand, students should rethink their strategies,
especially regarding Soeharto. The first day of questioning
showed that the Soeharto case will end up being far more drawn
out than anyone predicted.

For Soeharto, the questioning must have been a shock to his
self-esteem. But investigating the alleged abuses of power and
illicit business by an experienced despot would be no easy job.

Judging from what we heard about his first day of questioning
by three deputy attorney generals, he went through the same old
motions, made the same old statements and used the usual cliches.
It proved to be the same old farce.

Retired chief justice of criminal affairs Adi Andojo Soetjipto
reminded people recently that it would be difficult to bring
Soeharto to court on charges of corruption alone because of the
difficulty in finding material evidence.

All this should inspire students to change their method of
protesting and security authorities to find a better way to
ensure harmony.