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.