PKI pamphlets appear in Kupang

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: Kupang police precinct personnel tore to shreds several pamphlets bearing the symbol of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) along Kupang's main roads.

Those pamphlets, with the picture of party's famous symbols -- the hammer and sickle -- were cleaned up by dawn on Tuesday. They were found glued to the walls of buildings along Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Achmad Yani and Jl. Timor Raya.

"We were informed by locals very early on Tuesday and we immediately went to the scene to tear them down before any more people could lay their eyes on the PKI symbol," said First. Insp. Robertus Herry, the chief of Kupang police detectives.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Viktor E. Simanjuntak, the chief of Kupang police precinct, said that the police were still looking for perpetrators.

The PKI was banned by Soeharto in 1966 after he blamed the communists for the 1965 coup attempt that brought him to power for the next 3 decades. The PKI is still officially banned, although there are a growing number of voices calling for the ban to annulled. Demand is also on the rise, in order to the government does not discriminate the former members of PKI and their children, for example, from applying for jobs in government institutions. -- JP