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)