Nation marks crushing of coup attempt

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)