Maoist groups behind riots, says Soeharto

Maoist groups behind riots, says Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday small groups
of Maoist activists were behind the riots that rocked the country
recently.

"They are applying the Mao Zedong theory in which they (seek
to) control villages and then cities," Soeharto told some 70
leaders and managers of Islamic boarding schools' cooperatives.

"They do not just dominate the villages to seize power. These
troublemakers mess the villages up first and then continue their
disturbance into the city," he said.

He pointed out that these groups were trying to change the
state's foundations, to replace the state ideology Pancasila and
the 1945 Constitution.

The five-tenet Pancasila promotes belief in one God, humanity,
national unity, democracy through deliberation and consensus, and
social justice.

Soeharto said these groups exerted every effort and used every
resource available to reach their goals.

"Because they are small, they have used every chance to
exaggerate issues such as disparities, corruption and illegal
levies," Soeharto said.

By raising such issues, they hoped to strain relations between
the community and the government so they could exert their will,
he said. "Members of Islamic boarding schools should thus be on
the alert for these small irresponsible groups," he said, citing
as an example the recent riot in the West Java town of
Tasikmalaya.

The head of state also said the riots in Tasikmalaya and other
towns in the country had been used by irresponsible people like
"hoodlums" and other criminals.

Soeharto said an "alert command center" would be set up to
tackle other forms of violence.

"If you sense something, quick, tell the centers. Let the
centers investigate the agitators," he said.

"Those people want to disrupt stability," he said. "Our
development is based on stability. Without national stability
there will be no development. Without development there will be
no growth. Without growth there will be no parity."

Before Soeharto, military and civilian leaders have said the
recent riots were started by "intellectual actors" who were
members of unnamed groups or "formless organizations" -- a
government code word for members of the banned Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI).

There have been three major ethnic and religious riots in
Indonesia in the last three months; they occurred respectively on
Oct. 10 in the East Java town of Situbondo, on Dec. 26 in
Tasikmalaya and earlier this month in Sanggau Ledo, Sambas, West
Kalimantan.

The first of the riots claimed five lives, the second four
lives, and the most recent in Sanggau Ledo killed five.

Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, chief of the Armed Forces'
Sociopolitical Affairs, denied Thursday accusations that the army
had provoked the ethnic and religious riots.

Indonesia views communism as a major threat to the nation's
stability. In 1965, the PKI staged a bloody coup that killed
several army generals. It was the party's second attempt after
the communist rebellion in 1948. The PKI had close links with its
comrades in China.

Also yesterday, Soeharto urged the management of Islamic
boarding schools to encourage their cooperatives to establish
closer ties.

"The cooperatives of the pesantren should foster closer
relations," he said, adding that cooperatives should buy goods
from wholesale markets instead of common stores to take advantage
of the cheaper prices.

The meeting was also attended by the general chairman of the
major Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama's law-making body,
Ilyas Ruchiyat, also a member of the supervisory body of the
Cipasung Islamic boarding school in Tasikmalaya. (35)