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.