Peaceful demonstration is allowed: President Soeharto
Peaceful demonstration is allowed: President Soeharto
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto says the government will not
ban any street demonstrations, but stressed that all public
protests will need a police permit to ensure orderliness and
minimize the likelihood of destructive behavior.
"What the government bans is destructive actions, not the
demonstrations," Soeharto said when hosting recipients of
scholarships from the Supersemar Foundation he chairs.
The President said people need an official permit to hold a
demonstration and guaranteed the authorities will approve all
protests so long as they have good intentions.
He said the government would punish those who incite violence
by raising sensitive issues such as religion and race. "All
citizens are equal before the law as the 1945 Constitution
guarantees and the non-indigenous deserve equal protection," he
said.
Critics and some student groups have charged that the Soeharto
"New Order" administration is intolerant of criticism. Many
students have been put in jail for demonstrating.
Student demonstrations played an important role in helping
oust President Sukarno's "Old Order" administration in the mid-
1960s.
Stability
Soeharto has effectively curbed street demonstrations on the
pretext that national development, which focuses on the economy,
needs stability.
"Demonstrating is all right but it should not violate rules
and never turn to violence," he said. He added that it would be
difficult to control a street rally involving hundreds of people.
He said he worried that if not properly controlled, street
protests may be used by "third parties" who do not want to see a
stable Indonesia.
On Saturday, Soeharto addressed the 20th anniversary of the
Supersemar Foundation which opened a national congress for
students and alumni who received scholarships from the Supersemar
Foundation at Taman Mini Indonesia Park.
The President said that it would take more than one generation
to develop vast multi-ethnic Indonesia and that there are simply
no shortcuts to success. "The Indonesian experience shows that we
can make the basis for economic take-off only after 25 years of
continuous hard work," he said.
Soeharto said the best the government could do to increase the
yield from development is to increase the pace of the process.
"We need quality human resource to do that," he said in the
ceremony in which Vice President Try Sutrisno was also present.
He added that some countries which have quality human
resources can develop their nations very well although they have
limited natural resources.
221 graduates
The Association of Supersemar Scholarships Recipients plans to
train 221 graduates to work as volunteers to help administer
government aid under the Presidential Scheme for Poor Villages.
The President said despite success in economic development, of
the about 65,000 villages across Indonesia, 20,633 are still
poor.
Since its establishment in 1975, the Supersemar Foundation has
provided scholarships to tens of thousands of students, including
post graduates.
The scholarships were initially offered to students whose
parents were killed or missing in the military operation to
liberate West Irian (now renamed Irian Jaya) in the 1960s.
Soeharto said the facilities will also be provided for
students whose parents were killed or missing during Operation
Seroja to liberate East Timor in the 1970s.
He said Supersemar scholarship recipients are expected to
become entrepreneurs, but they will receive top priority if they
want to serve as civil servants. (pan)