Megawati shuns July 27 tragedy commemoration

Megawati shuns July 27 tragedy commemoration

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The bloody tragedy that killed at least five supporters of
Megawati Soekarnoputri on July 27, 1996 was commemorated in a
low-key ceremony here on Sunday by victims of the attack on her
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters.

Megawati and her current aides skipped the unofficial
commemoration, as they had not planned for such a ceremony to
mourn the killed and to express their sympathy for 149 injured
and 23 missing after the incident.

The attack, led by Megawati's then rival PDI leader Suryadi --
who received tacit backing from the military -- had made her
popularity climb during the authoritarian rule of former
president Soeharto.

But Megawati's absence at Sunday's event raised widespread
claims that she now neglected the tragedy, without which analysts
and victims both said she would never have ascended to the
presidency.

Megawati's negligence was apparently connected to her move to
strengthen her relationships with the military ahead of the 2004
presidential election.

As part of this strategy, it was said, she even threw her
weight last year behind the reelection bid of current Governor
Sutiyoso, who was allegedly involved in the July 1996 attack.
Sutiyoso was then serving as the Jakarta military commander.

Megawati's show of support for Sutiyoso severely irked
supporters who had suffered in the tragedy, and so turned them
against her.

Less than 100 people showed up at Sunday's commemoration at
the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, during
which participants staged a free speech forum to lash out at
Megawati and other members of her current PDI of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) central board.

The event started at around 10 a.m. with only 70 victims,
their families and sympathizers present. They marked the
commemoration with a traditional rice cone (nasi tumpeng)
ceremony. There was no ritual flower service for the killed
victims.

Banners seen among the participants carried slogans against
Megawati and PDI Perjuangan, deriding her for having used the
tragedy's victims as her "political offering" to gain the
presidency.

Haryanto Taslam, former PDI deputy secretary and currently one
of her staunchest critics, urged Megawati never to forget the
bloody incident seven years ago.

"We also demand Megawati's government to investigate the
tragedy thoroughly and bring all the suspects to court," he told
the crowd, reported Antara.

Chairman of the commemoration committee Petrus Kurniawan
blasted the ongoing trial of five suspects as an "orchestration",
because the defendants were merely field operators, not the
masterminds behind the attack.

The five defendants include two former military aides to
Sutiyoso, Col. Budi Purnama and First Col. Suharto. The three
others are all civilians -- Mochamad Tanjung, Jonathan Marpaung
and Rahimmi Ilyas.