People's movement unlikely to emerge, observers say

People's movement unlikely to emerge, observers say

JAKARTA (JP): Two prominent political observers have expressed
doubts that the successive wave of student protests across the
country could develop into a mass people's movement.

"Unless the protesting students can identify or be identified
as one with the people whose aspirations they claim to be
voicing, I don't think it will happen," Muhammad AS Hikam of the
National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said yesterday.

Noted Moslem scholar Nurcholish Madjid also argued there would
need to be a unifying force, respected by all segments of society
and able to bridge various divisions, for the students' actions
to wield greater influence.

Nurcholish said the "People's Power" movement in the
Philippines had a respected church leader to unify the people.

The scholars spoke to The Jakarta Post at a seminar on civil
society yesterday.

Although skeptical about the emergence of a mass people's
movement, Nurcholish said the government could not be inactive in
its efforts to solve the crisis.

"Economic reforms will be less effective unless they are also
followed by political reform," he said.

Hikam advised that students should keep their protests on
their campuses because of the risk of violence if they moved onto
the streets.

He said it was more important for students to serve as a
"moral force" for efforts on democratization.

"They have already shown to the public that they, as part of
the educated members of society, care about people's sufferings
in the present crisis."

Discussing the process of political change and
democratization, Nurcholish said he could not predict whether
these would be peaceful.

He said "empirical evidence" had shown that successful
democratization of a country -- one form of political reform --
would take place in conjunction with a "crisis stage" of the
power elite.

"In this case, the crisis process could occur in either a
constitutional or unconstitutional way, smooth or rough, soft or
hard, in peace or in bloodshed," he said.

Protests

Meanwhile, students in major cities throughout the country
continued to voice their discontent yesterday.

In Bandung, West Java, more than 1,000 students of the state-
run Teachers Training Institute in the city ignored the ban
against street rallies and held a protest on Jl. Setiabudi.

The march caused a traffic jam stretching several kilometers.

The only violent incident occurred when several students threw
stones at riot police, who erected a barricade to stop them from
progressing further.

The students returned to their campus after about 45 minutes .

In Semarang, Central Java, about 6,000 students held a free-
speech forum at the Diponegoro University.

United Development Party (PPP) official, Moedrick Sangidoe,
and the university's senior professor, Soehardjo SS, were among
the participants.

Under watchful supervision from hundreds of security officers
outside the campus, both speakers called on the students to keep
voicing the people's aspirations through their protests.

They blamed the government for the state of the country and
lamented the failure of the House of Representatives to
articulate the suffering of the people.

In Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, at least four senior
professors of Hasanuddin University joined more than 1,000
students in a similar protest.

After listening to speeches on their campus, the students
boarded trucks and protested in front of the provincial
legislature office.

No violence was reported.

Separately around 700 students of the Indonesian Muhammadiyah
University (UMI) in Ujungpandang also staged a protest. The
students were accompanied by Rector Masyur Ramly and several
lecturers.

More people joined in later in the afternoon when some 70 more
students from the Ujungpandang Teachers Training Institute came
into UMI's campus and joined in the chorus of jeers.

In Yogyakarta, about 100 students from the School of Social
and Political Science of Gadjah Mada University circled their
campus bearing a coffin enscribed with the words "The People's
Economy".

An assistant rector of the university joined in the protest.
(23/30/37/43/har/aan)