Nation marks crushing of coup attempt
JAKARTA (JP): Roughly 100,000 Jakarta Moslems turned up last night for a thanksgiving prayer at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque, marking the peak of the week-long 31st commemoration by Moslem groups of the crushing of the 1965 communist coup attempt.
The congregation members also used the event, organized by the influential Indonesian Council of Ulemas, to reaffirm their allegiance to the state ideology, Pancasila, and to protect it from the threat of communism.
Earlier in the day, President Soeharto led a solemn ceremony marking Pancasila Sanctity Day in East Jakarta, attended by numerous officials, dignitaries and families of the generals slain in the coup attempt which was blamed on the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party.
In the ceremony, Deputy House Speaker J.A. Katili read out a pledge that the nation would maintain Pancasila as the source of the nation's strength.
President Soeharto did not make any speeches during the morning ceremony in the Lubang Buaya area, where the mutilated bodies of six Army generals were dumped in an old well by the coup plotters after they were abducted and murdered on Sept. 30, 1965.
In the ceremony, broadcast live by television and radio stations, House Speaker Wahono recited the five tenets of Pancasila while Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro recited the 1945 Constitution's preamble.
It was closed with a prayer led by Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher.
Soeharto then made a brief tour of the well at Lubang Buaya, which translates literally as "crocodile hole", and shook hands with the generals' widows while heroic songs filled the morning air.
The evening thanksgiving gathering at Istiqlal, which is planned to become an annual event starting this year, was intended to remind Indonesian Moslems "never to be caught off guard again", according to the chairman of the ulemas council, Hasan Basri.
The council's activities surrounding the commemoration began on Sept. 27 with a marching competition for young Moslems, a seminar featuring Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung, who talked about the latent dangers of communism, and other experts.
Indonesia observes Oct. 1 as Pancasila Sanctity Day, in commemoration of the success of the military operation under Maj. Gen. Soeharto, the then chief of the Army Strategic Reserve Command, against the communists.
Indonesian flags were flown at half-mast Monday and raised to full-mast yesterday as ceremonies were held simultaneously across the country.
Over the past few months, Indonesian officials have delivered with greater frequency warnings about the latent danger of communism, which this year has even greater significance, given the recent political tension related to the Democratic People's Party.
The small youth organization is accused of conducting communist activities and of masterminding the July 27 riots which, according to the National Commission on Human Rights, killed five and injured 149 people.
Yesterday, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman said Indonesian youths should treat various incoming ideologies with caution and abandon those irrelevant to Pancasila. The stance is needed in order to prevent any problems which may disadvantage the people, he said.
"In our pledge today, we vow to improve social justice... the PKI will not reemerge if the country's situation is good, meaning that social gaps are reduced," Soesilo said.
The widow of D.I. Panjaitan, one of the six Army generals who were slain in the coup attempt, also called on the younger people to learn from history. "We suffered very much... don't let it happen again," she said. (ste/swe)