Poor logic doesn't sell

The frightful and well-organized Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was outlawed 32 years ago following its alleged failure to launch a bloody coup d'etat. That encouraging start was followed by the entombment of communism in Eastern Europe, while in China and Vietnam the ideology has been consigned to the freezer because those countries are now following the capitalist path.

Indonesians, who have been mentally terrorized by the communists, joyfully welcomed the above auspicious events but lately military leaders have warned that the specter of communism is still haunting us.

Only a few people believe that this horrifying warning has any logic to it. The results of a survey, jointly commissioned by The Jakarta Post and D&R weekly magazine, printed in this newspaper yesterday, found that the majority of people in this country believe that the PKI has been used as a convenient scapegoat when no other answers are available.

The survey asked 1,130 people in five major cities between Oct. 6 and Oct. 10 how they perceived the Armed Forces' (ABRI) claim that the now-defunct PKI was actively maneuvering behind the scenes to wreak havoc on the country.

In the latest claim, the military said the mysterious killing spree which began in Banyuwangi regency in East Java was the work of descendants of PKI members. A little earlier, the military said recent protests organized by Forkot, an alliance of student senates from several universities and colleges in Greater Jakarta, were "communist" inspired. The same accusation was leveled against the People's Democratic Party (PRD) two years ago when its leaders were rounded up by the military and jailed. That the warning was "a force of habit by ABRI" was the next most popular answer.

The question now is why the military leaders have such a great tendency to accuse government critics of being infected by the leftist virus? First, they have an unnerving habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

We believe that the speakers themselves do not believe what they are saying but they feel honor bound to repeat the same hollow statements because doing so has become a sort of daily ritual. It has also been a part of the mentality of the New Order regime, backed by their tradition of expecting a chorus of "Ready, Sir," to whatever they say. In the eyes of the majority, as the survey shows, these officials do not have so much as an ounce of charisma or trustworthiness.

In 1995 the then ABRI commander, Gen. Feisal Tanjung, instructed all regional commanders to raise the level of their alertness to what he termed "increasing communist and leftist activities."

However all these warnings sound somewhat ridiculous particularly because the authorities cannot come up with solid evidence to support the claims.

It seems our military leaders have a lack of understanding of the consequences of their statements among Indonesians with a low capability for rational thought. The habit to portray the PKI remnants as dangerous or as a latent danger is to inadvertently build a myth around them.

And they are not aware that the younger generation, born after 1966, tends to take the opinion that the communist virus is nothing more than a gimmick to make people forget the inhumane atrocities that took place in Aceh and East Timor in recent years and who was responsible for them.