PPP's Ismail Hasan warns of infiltration
PPP's Ismail Hasan warns of infiltration
JAKARTA (JP): United Development Party (PPP) chief Ismail
Hasan Metareum told supporters yesterday to beware of
"infiltrators" intending to blot the party's image.
"If you see a stranger wearing PPP attributes but doing bad
things, catch and hand over him or her to police," he said while
addressing a rally in Malang, East Java.
Ismail's speech came amid heightening political tension as the
campaign passed into the third week. PPP rallies, which have
drawn unexpectedly large crowds, have been marred with violence.
In several provinces, the PPP's supporters have clashed with
Golkar's. People believed to be PPP supporters rampaged in the
Central Java town of Temanggung yesterday, attacking government
and military offices as well as churches.
PPP rallies in Jakarta yesterday were also marred with
violence. Several cars were vandalized and a police officer was
mobbed.
President Soeharto ordered election organizers Monday to tell
party officials to control their supporters.
Ismail said the PPP could not stop non-supporters joining its
rallies because the basic idea of campaigning was to attract the
public.
The PPP was a peace-loving party and therefore abhorred
violence, he said. Mob violence could be triggered by people
wanting to see the election fail.
Malang's streets were jammed yesterday as countless PPP
supporters formed motorcades.
PPP rallies in Java were heavily guarded after the Armed
Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung's promise to take harsh action
against recalcitrant campaigners and supporters.
In the Central Java towns of Demak and Kendal, security
precautions were so meticulous that PPP supporters complained
that they were stopped and interrogated before reaching rally
venues.
In Bogor, troops were deployed as thousands of people roamed
the streets in and around the town.
"It's like a war is ensuing," a bus passenger said.
Huge street rallies also happened in Yogyakarta, where
campaigners Fauzi A.R. and Sukri Fadholi exploited last year's
murder of Bernas daily reporter, Fuad Muhammad Syafrudin, and the
1993 killing of East Java labor activist Marsinah.
Fuad Muhammad Syafrudin, who died in hospital on Jan. 16, is
believed to have been murdered because of his scathing reports on
corruption in the Bantul administration.
Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found in May 1993, a few
days after she had organized a workers' strike at the PT Catur
Putra Surya watch factory in Sidoarjo.
A man will soon be tried for Udin's murder, but Marsinah's
case remains unsettled after nine defendants were acquitted of
all charges by the Supreme Court in 1995.
The PPP Yogyakarta branch will file a Rp 3.9 million
(US$1,600) lawsuit today against an attack by Golkar supporters
on two of its offices on April 30. The PPP is also demanding that
Golkar publicly apologize for the attack.
While the PPP Yogyakarta branch was working on its lawsuit
yesterday afternoon, a PPP command post in Mantrijeron
subdistrict was attacked by 30 masked men. PPP official
Suprianto, who had been on duty there, was beaten with a crowbar,
eyewitnesses said.
Elsewhere in Yogyakarta, a member of the PPP security
task force was beaten by military personnel who suspected him of
unruly campaigning.
PPP rallies in Java were colored again yesterday with banners
and pictures portraying a party alliance with the deposed
Indonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) leader, Megawati
Soekarnoputri.
Similar banners and pictures were on show in Yogyakarta and
Pasuruan, East Java. Many Megawati loyalists, wearing red T-
shirts and carrying banners in support of the Megawati-PPP
alliance, joined convoys jamming the main streets of the two
cities.
In Jakarta, the PPP executive board began appealing for people
to become its scrutineers for ballot counting on May 29.
Zain Badjeber, a PPP deputy chief, said that the monitoring
body was established out of concern about reported widespread
poll rigging in the past but couldn't be legally processed due to
the lack of witnesses. (amd/bsr/38/23/24/nur/imn/har)