Political revenge must be avoided

Political revenge must be avoided

From Suara Karya

As a victim of the New Order administration as a result of my taking part in the signing of Petisi 50 and the white book on the Tanjung Priok affair, I certainly feel very much concerned over the ailing conditions rocking our nation and state.

The Soeharto administration, supported by unconstitutional institutions such as the Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib) and the March 11 Order (Supersemar) as its ground, was firmly established for quite a long time, 32 years to be exact. Golkar, originally called Joint Secretariat of Golkar (Sekber Golkar) was set up one year before the Indonesian Communist Party's (PKI) uprising in 1965, i.e. on Oct. 24, 1964. The establishment of Sekber Golkar was aimed at deterring PKI's influence in various fields.

Then in the first general election in 1972, Sekber Golkar was renamed the Functional Group (Golkar) and was made the political vehicle of Soeharto. I must say frankly that Golkar was controlled by unconstitutional institutions that determined the Soeharto regime's strategy and political course.

The unconstitutional institutions such as Kopkamtib and Supersemar as well as Golkar were under Gen. Soeharto's control, supported by the wings designing the political strategy. Former president Soeharto was chairman of Golkar's Developing Council and reserved a veto right to suspense any decision made by Golkar's board that was not in line with his political policy.

So, in my opinion, it's naive for people to think that Golkar was the only political party accountable for the wretched political and economic conditions during Soeharto's reign.

As a signatory of Petisi 50 and the Tanjung Priok White Book I am absolutely against the opinion that Petisi 50 has become carried away by the political stream and therefore is far from its initial objective, i.e. persistently upholding justice and truth.

BAKRI A G TIANLEAN

Bekasi, West Java