Muhammadiyah high school students join protests

Muhammadiyah high school students join protests

JAKARTA (JP): Despite calls for high school students not to
join the political rallies taking place across the country, some
5,000 students from the Muhammadiyah organization staged a
demonstration on Wednesday to protest the ransacking of
Muhammadiyah facilities in East Java.

Wearing their school uniforms, the students marched from the
Muhammadiyah head office on Jl. Kramat Raya in Central Jakarta to
Merdeka Selatan Palace. The students held banners and pamphlets
reading "Reform Yes, Anarchy No", "Who will be responsible for
our damaged school?" and "Gus Dur step down".

Along with Golkar Party offices, numerous Muhammadiyah
facilities, including schools, in East Java have been targeted by
mobs claiming to support President Abdurrahman Wahid.

East Java is known as the stronghold of the country's largest
Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, which Abdurrahman chaired
for many years.

The demonstration on Wednesday was held despite Minister of
National Education Yahya Muhaimin's call to high school
principals on Tuesday to prevent their students from taking part
in political rallies.

The students taking part in the rally said they were not
demonstrating in front of the presidential palace because the
government under Abdurrahman was no longer effective.

Elmunico, one of five student demonstrators received by Brig.
Gen. Sumarmo, chief of the defense bureau at Merdeka Selatan
Palace, said the students were disappointed at not being able to
meet with Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"We will stage another demonstration with even more students
if the government fails to take action against the people who
damaged Muhammadiyah's facilities in East Java," he said.

Separately, Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Maarif said during a
media conference his organization was disappointed with the
government and other parties who seemed to ignore the attacks on
Muhammadiyah's schools in East Java.

"The police and the (Indonesian Military) TNI should have
controlled the situation better and stopped the attacks. Even
afterward, no one showed any concern over the incident.

"Even the National Commission on Human Rights did not say a
word about the incident, while we all know that education is one
of the basic rights of children," Syafii said.

Muhammadiyah deputy chairman Din Syamsuddin said the
organization would explore legal measures it could take to
investigate the attacks, and would report its findings to the
police as soon as possible.

"We also expect President Abdurrahman Wahid to be held
responsible for the incident as it was the work of his
supporters.

"If the attacks cannot be stopped, Muhammadiyah will review
its stance on Abdurrahman's leadership," Din said.

Rallies

In Central Java, rallies were held in several cities, most of
them to voice support for Abdurrahman.

In Banyumas, about 5,000 youths calling themselves the
Students Alliance and the Anti-New Order Students marched along
the city's main roads to show their support for the President.

While the rally did not result in violence, it did clog the
streets for most of the day, including main roads connecting the
city to other cities in Java.

In Rembang, 4,000 supporters of Abdurrahman held a mass prayer
in the town center. They prayed as a show of support for the
embattled President and also to ask for divine direction to help
the country out of its crisis.

There also was some action in East Java. In Surabaya, about
100 students took to the streets to demand that Abdurrahman step
down.

Calling themselves the Movement to Rescue Pure Reform, the
students handed out pamphlets to commuters before disbanding.

In Jember, a mass prayer involving 2,000 people was
highlighted by political statements by local religious leaders,
who demanded the House of Representative's memorandum of censure
against the President be revoked.

They also criticized House Speaker and Golkar chairman Akbar
Tandjung and Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, who they accused of
being the source of the attacks on Abdurrahman's
presidency.

Meanwhile, Jimly Asshiddiqie, a political analyst who also
served as an adviser to president B.J. Habibie, said in Semerang
he was skeptical that any attempt to force Abdurrahman out of
office through a special session of the People's Consultative
Assembly would be successful without the support of Golkar Party
and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Even though there is strong support for such a move among
legislators from the smaller factions, without the support of the
two biggest factions "it just will not happen", he said, adding
that a special session may also not be the ideal mechanism to
resolve the political quandary. (har/dja/rms/nur)