PPP chief wants probe of controversial book

PPP chief wants probe of controversial book

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) says it
supports the government's plan to investigate a newly published
book which argues that the late former president Sukarno was not
involved in the 1965 coup attempt.

The book, Kehormatan bagi yang Berhak (Honor for the One who
Deserves It), can undermine the New Order government under
President Soeharto, PPP chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum said
yesterday.

Written by Manai Sophiaan, a columnist and a former ambassador
to Moscow during the Sukarno administration, the book presents
accounts different from the official version about the tragic
event.

"I hope the Chief Justice exerts his authority to investigate
the book and take the necessary precautions because certain parts
of the book can undermine the New Order government," Ismail Hasan
told journalists.

The Attorney General's office, which has the authority to ban
books, usually waits until a book has been circulated first
before taking any action.

Ismail Hasan said he was concerned about the escalating debate
about Sukarno's stand on the Sept. 30, 1965 abortive coup attempt
by the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Rejection of Sukarno's account of leadership in 1967 by the
then Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) suggested
that the late president lost his mandate because "there was
something wrong" with the way he handled the abortive coup, he
said. "There was something politically unacceptable about his
leadership."

Ismail Hasan criticized Manai's allegation made in an
interview with a local magazine that anti-Sukarno student
demonstrations in the mid-1960s were sponsored by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He said the allegation hurts the activists' feelings because
the students took to the street on their own account to demand
disbandment of PKI. "The allegation shows (Manai's) disgust of
the New Order's emergence and represents attempts to twist
history," he said. (pan)