Opposition hits back at government on subversion charges

Opposition hits back at government on subversion charges

JAKARTA (JP): As the National Police are escalating their
probe of 20 opposition leaders on subversion charges, President
B.J. Habibie is coming under another big wave of public
criticisms for what many see as his resort to the iron-fisted
rule of former president Soeharto.

Lawyers and opposition and student leaders said on Tuesday
that Habibie's order to the Armed Forces chief Saturday to crack
down on what he calls 'acts of rebellion' against his government
was nothing other than " business as usual as during Soeharto's
New Order."

"It is quite clear to everybody that the Habibie
administration is reviving the iron-fisted rule of Soeharto, his
mentor," asserted Amien Rais, Chairman of the National Mandate
Party, in Bandar Lampung.

"We should strive to correct this," Amien was quoted by Antara
as saying after he addressed a public rally in the southern
Sumatra town on Tuesday.

Student and opposition leaders rejected the government's
charges that student demonstrations over the last few weeks had
been exploited by certain groups for their own political agenda
to bring down the legal government.

"We have become too familiar with such groundless charges.
Previously, we were accused by Gen. Wiranto (Armed Forces chief)
of being infiltrated by communists," Adian of the Forkot student
movement told The Jakarta Post.

Ki Joko Sardo of the University of Indonesia and Inung of the
Famred student movement for reform said if the opposition leaders
were arrested for supporting the student struggle for democracy
then millions of other people should also be detained.

"The fact is our parents and many other people, including taxi
drivers and street vendors, have been supporting our rallies with
cash or food and beverage donations," Sardo pointed out.

"I think the accusation of subversion against those opposition
leaders does not make any sense at all. How could they, without a
single weapon at their disposal, try to topple the government?"
Inung added.

President Habibie deplored the Black Friday violence in a
speech broadcast nationwide on Monday, but he also pursued the
same line that the noble ideals being pursued by the student
movement had been exploited by certain parties bent on bringing
down his government.

While expressing his regret for the Nov. 13 incident, Habibie
promised a fair, transparent and thorough investigation to be
conducted on the principles of certainty and equality before the
law.

"We also promise to mete out firm sanctions against anyone,
including members of the security forces, if they are proven
guilty by the courts," he said in his second nationwide
television address within three days.

Kwik Kian Gie, deputy chairman of the popular faction of the
Indonesian Democratic Party, also expressed total disbelief at
the charges of rebellion against the 16 government critics who
issued an antigovernment statement last Thursday.

"The accusation is completely baseless. Students are all
politically motivated and will not allow themselves to be used by
other groups. Hence, the crackdown on the opposition figures is
only a ploy by the government to have a scapegoat for its own
grave mistake," Kwik told a news conference Tuesday.

The joint communique issued by leading opposition figures
after a meeting at the Sahid Jaya Hotel on Nov. 12 called, among
other things, for discontinuation of the MPR Special Session and
formation of a provisional MPR to set up a presidium government
which would prepare a democratic general election.

Separately, Let. Gen. Fachrul Razi, Chief of General Affairs
of the Armed Forces, told Moslem ulemas (scholars) from across
the country at a meeting here on Tuesday that certain groups had
exploited the student rallies last week for advancing their own
agenda to foil the Special Session of the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR).

"Obviously, the subversion charges have yet to be
substantiated through legal proceedings," Razi was quoted by
Antara as saying after addressing the gathering.

Meanwhile, A. Baramuli, Chairman of the Supreme Advisory
Council, asked the government Tuesday to detain all those
suspected of subversion.

"Anyone charged with crimes that are liable to imprisonment in
excess of five years must be detained," Baramuli, on a visit to
Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, told Antara when asked to comment on
the probe into a dozen opposition leaders in Jakarta.

Separately, Siswono Yudohusodo, a former minister and a leader
of the Movement for National Justice and Unity, said the
signatories of the Nov. 12 communique might have simply lobbied
to recreate the political-solution scenario of 1966 which
unseated the then president Sukarno and appointed Soeharto.

"In 1966, more than 50 percent of the MPR members were
replaced to form a provisional MPR which later convened in 1967 a
special session to appoint Soeharto.

The communique is simply an idea for the public to consider.
Obviously, nobody can be arrested and investigated merely for
airing his ideas," added Siswono.

However, legal expert Ismail Sunny, asserted earlier on Monday
that the Nov. 12 communique of the opposition leaders was truly a
plot to overthrow a legal government.

Sunny told Antara" that by stating their rejection of the MPR
and its decrees and calling for a presidium government to replace
the Habibie administration the signatories could already be
charged with subversion.

Minister of Cooperatives and Small Business Adi Sasono who is
also the secretary general of the Association of Moslem
Intellectuals, which was founded by Habibie in the early 1990s,
shared Sunny's views.

"The investigations are quite a positive move. If the charges
prove false, the suspects can immediately be rehabilitated," Adi
told Antara Monday.

More than a dozen other non-governmental organizations and
pressure groups issued statements on Tuesday rejecting the
charges against the opposition figures entirely as a ploy to
divert the public's attention away from the Nov. 13 tragedy and
numerous other acts of violence committed earlier by the
military.

The NGOs and pressure groups, including the Indonesian Legal
Aid Foundation, Indonesian Corruption Watch, Kontras and the
Ikadin bar association urged the government to immediately
discontinue the investigations of the signatories of the Nov. 12
communique. (emb/edt/rms/ylt/vin)