Our simmering political climate

Our simmering political climate

On Friday the plan to establish a National Alert Command
Center was announced by President Soeharto. The announcement
reminded many people of the defunct internal security agency,
which was installed immediately after Soeharto received the March
11 Order in 1966 (giving him full authority to put down the 1965
communist coup attempt).

We do not know as yet how much power the new command is to be
given, but the President's remarks make it certain that the new
command center is meant to prevent unrest in the early stages.
The command will take preventive measures by monitoring people
who are suspected of instigating trouble, distributing leaflets
and other such acts.

The step indicates that the current situation warrants our
extra vigilance. We sense that the political temperature is
rising, and not only because we are facing the general elections.
During the past elections, the political climate pending the
campaigning and the voting did indeed show a tendency to heat up,
but this was mostly due to competition between contestants or
because of trouble within the contesting organizations
themselves.

The rising political climate this time is of a much more
fundamental nature. According to the President, the situation is
now endangering stability. One of our neighboring countries has
already taken preventive security steps by drafting a law which
eventually became known as the Internal Security Act.

In our own country a similar law already exists in the anti-
subversion law. Among lawyers and politicians, however, a plea is
made for a revising of this law to bring it more in line with the
times.

-- Republika, Jakarta