'Pakpahan never uttered antigovt statements'

'Pakpahan never uttered antigovt statements'

JAKARTA (JP): A prosecution witness told the court trying
labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan yesterday that he had not heard
Pakpahan utter any antigovernment statements between August 1995
and July 1996.

The witness, Tohap Simanungkalit, told the South Jakarta
District Court, he never heard any of the statements alleged by
Prosecutor R. Moekiat.

When Pakpahan questioned Tohap, he asked whether the latter
had ever heard him make the statement "Soeharto has lied too
much."

Tohap said: "I never heard you make the statement."

Tohap, a deputy chairman of the Pakpahan-led Indonesian
Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), gave the same reply when Pakpahan
asked him about other alleged antigovernment statements.

Pakpahan is accused of subversion, punishable by death, for
allegedly making subversive statements between August 1995 and
July 1996.

According to the indictment, Pakpahan's alleged statements
include: "... (I refuse) to nominate Soeharto for 1998", "...
Soeharto's administration has turned upside down the country's
rule of law", "... (I) do not agree with the Armed Forces' dual
function", and "revoke the five political laws."

Tohap, the only witness to testify yesterday, was questioned
by the court for almost four hours.

He told the court that Pakpahan's statements in an SBSI
newsletter dated July 27 had never been released, as Pakpahan had
requested.

The SBSI letter signed by Pakpahan, titled The Chronology of
the Involvement of Hoodlums in the Takeover of the PDI
Headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro 58, accused Soerjadi, hoodlums and
the Armed Forces of forcibly taking over the headquarters of the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), controlled by supporters of
Megawati Soekarnoputri, who Soerjadi had ousted in a government-
sanctioned rebel congress in Medan on June 22.

Tohap told the court: "The letter was considered 'not to
exist' after the SBSI central board refused to issue it."

Pakpahan was seemingly surprised by Tohap's testimony, saying:
"I only knew of the situation just now. I thought the letter had
been sent to the mass media," he told the court.

'Labor politics'

The trial, presided over by Judge Djazuli P. Sudibyo, resumed
after 13 days off for the Idul Fitri holiday.

Responding to Prosecutor R. Moekiat's question on SBSI
activities, Tohap said SBSI was a labor organization involved in
"labor politics".

"But, as an independent and democratic labor union, we set our
sights on politics and defending laborers' rights. We are neither
structurally nor by organization connected with any political
party in Indonesia," he said.

"Labor unions which do not step into labor politics are not
labor unions at all, for they serve only their masters," Tohap
said.

Pakpahan was accompanied yesterday by only one member of his
seven-lawyer team, M. Luthfie Hakim, who again jousted with
Djazuli.

The judge said "lawyers always protest", in response to
Luthfie's protest that the judge had "repeated questions" which
he said "wasted time", a move defended by the prosecutor.

Djazuli adjourned the trial until this Thursday because one of
the three judges, Marsel Buchari, fell sick. He told the
prosecutor to call on Tohap to reappear in court then. (08)