Permadi ready to face trial for prophecy

Permadi ready to face trial for prophecy

JAKARTA (JP): Psychic Permadi, in hot water as a result of his
prediction that political turbulence might rock Indonesia this
year, says he is ready to account for his prophecy in court.

"Could any Indonesian with a bundle of evidence resist a court
trial?" Permadi asked after being interrogated for five-and-a-
half hours at the Attorney General's Office yesterday.

The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Psychics was
questioned in connection with his prediction, which was aired by
a Yogyakarta private radio station, Radio Unisi, last year.

Radio Unisi has denied allegations that it has reproduced the
statements in quantity on audio cassettes.

His political speculation, which Central Javanese government
officials claim were also intended to discredit the then local
military chief, Lt. Gen. Soeyono, became a hot issue after audio
tapes of the prophecies were illicitly sold in the province.

In the recorded interview, Permadi predicted, among other
things, that Megawati Sukarnoputri, the eldest daughter of the
late Indonesian president Sukarno and current leader of the
Indonesian Democratic Party, might become the next president.

Soeyono, who was recently installed as the Armed Force's new
Chief of General Affairs, said the cassettes contained messages
"dangerous to social order and security" because they contained
"propaganda and agitation".

"The controversy could have been resolved if I had been given
an opportunity to talk with Maj. Gen. Soeyono in person,"
Permadi said.

Permadi insisted that his statements and predictions did not
cause social unrest and that they were his way of expressing his
opinions.

"I had no intention of inciting the public nor of acting
against the state," he said in the Central Javanese capital,
Semarang, last week.

He said that he loved the Armed Forces "very much" and had
been a member of the National Defense and Security Board for 18
years.

He said yesterday that he had twice tried to contact Soeyono
when he was the Chief of the Central Javanese Military.

Permadi was interrogated yesterday by secretary to the Deputy
Attorney General for Intelligence, B.T.P. Siregar, the head of
the Sociopolitical Affairs of the Attorney General's Office,
Kadarman, and the head of the Mass Media Unit of the Office,
Himawan.

Siregar said that the investigators had not reached a
conclusion at the end of yesterday's non-stop interrogation and
that, in any case, they would report the result to the Attorney
General before revealing it to the press. He also claimed that
the controversial cassettes were yet to be banned by authorities.
(imn/har)