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)