Opposition leaders' meeting welcomed as rare opportunity

JAKARTA (JP): A declaration drawn up by four popular figures on Tuesday was well received by political observers on Wednesday as a rare opportunity to build an alternative national leadership.

Marsilam Simanjutak and Arbi Sanit separately said that the meeting involving Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais and Sultan Hamengkubuwono X at Abdurrahman's residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, was much more important than the declaration itself.

"It is acceptable for the meantime, because if it is rejected the potential for alternative leadership would be crippled," Arbi told The Jakarta Post. Even though he disagreed with a point in the declaration to gradually phase out the Armed Forces' (ABRI) dual role within six years, he said he was willing to compromise if the figures continued to cooperate and follow up on the document, given the failure of civilian leaders to come forward during decades of repression.

However, 14 new political parties rejected the declaration, saying the figures had indirectly cast their weight behind the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly whose members were appointed by former president Soeharto.

Among the 14 were the New Masyumi Party, Christian Democratic Party, Catholic Political Party,Indonesian Uni-democracy Party (PUDI), Indonesian Workers Party and People's Economy Party (PERI).

New Masyumi chairman Ridwan Saidi said, on behalf of the political parties, that the parties sided with students who opposed the general election and would fight with the students for total reform in all fields.

"We cannot accept (President) B.J. Habibie's administration as a transitional government and the current legislative bodies because they are part of Soeharto's corrupt regime, and they have no commitment to investigate the allegation of rampant corruption, collusion and nepotism during the 32-year New Order administration," Ridwan said.

PUDI chairman Sri Bintang Pamungkas and, separately, Ratna Sarumpaet of the National Coalition, said the dialog was not representative of society.

"If they claim to represent the people, all components in society, including new political parties, should be invited to the dialog," he said. The Coalition also rejects the current government, which Ratna said was at odds with the declaration. Ratna organized a "People's Special Session" with students on Wednesday in opposition of the Assembly's session.

Besides demanding the gradual phasing out of ABRI's dual role, the eight-point appeal call for the maintenance of the unitary state, to return national sovereignty to the people, decentralization, a new government within three months of the May elections, an investigation into corrupt practices, and the appeal to withdraw civilian security volunteers.

Marsilam said the document was of secondary importance given the rare meeting of the figures with diverse views, and the wording of the document which he said was open to many interpretations, compared to the students' clear cut demands.

Regarding the point on ABRI, Marsilam said, "What I can understand from their way of thinking that in six years, starting today (Tuesday), the dual role is to be gradually eliminated until it is completely abolished, at the most within six years," Marsilam said. "So this would include the demand of the students that ABRI should not be apportioned seats in the parliament."

Because ABRI's seats in the legislature is only part of the dual function, removing them would be the first step to meet the six-year time frame, he said.

This would necessitate the deletion of the part of the draft decree on elections that justifies ABRI's seats in the legislative body, he said.

Marsilam said that because public support for the national figures was only based on their personality and position, the document itself would need to be worked on further by the four figures for it to provide effective leadership in the crisis.

"If not it will only be hollow," Marsilam said. "If not simultaneously filled with enough energy to apply pressure, it will vanish." Sufficient pressure would only come from students, he added.

In Yogyakarta, Cornelis Lay said the Ciganjur Declaration "should be accommodated by the government" as it is a "maximum compromise" to bridge the government's demands and those of the public.

The rector of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, Ichlasul Amal, said the Ciganjur forum should be widened to include political parties and draw up rules for fair elections.

Arbi said the declaration was a compromise between the wide gap of the decrees prepared in the Working Committee of the Assembly and the wishes of the public including students, who wanted a transitional presidium and immediate end to ABRI's dual role.

"So the declaration was a middle way, with the four leaders giving an opportunity to save face for members of the Working Committee who since the beginning would not agree to much change," he said.

Arbi said the four leaders were compromising over ABRI "only because ABRI is insistent" on maintaining its dual role such as its seats in legislative bodies.

On Monday Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto announced that the post of ABRI chief of sociopolitical affairs would be expanded to a new position, the Armed Forces Chief of Territorial Affairs. Wiranto did not say when this change would be effective, only saying that it would mean that military members would either have to retire or quit ABRI if they entered civilian jobs. But the policy did not relate to the Armed Forces seats in the legislature, he said.

Marsilam added the government's response to the declaration, which was "a confrontation to the interests of those in power" was irrelevant. "This declaration should function as an expression of the will of (the four figures) to respond to the demands of people, and it should not be left as a mere declaration." (rms/23/anr)