Public figures call for no rallies during fasting

Public figures call for no rallies during fasting

JAKARTA (JP): A day after clashes between students and
security personnel in Jakarta ended with dozens injured on both
sides, noted scholars, religious leaders and the military renewed
their appeals for an end to demonstrations during the Muslim
fasting month of Ramadhan.

Chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization
Nahdlatul Ulama, Abdurrahman Wahid, advised students to desist
from rallying -- also after Ramadhan -- because they had
succeeded in initiating the reform movement. Students should
focus on public political education through campus activities, he
said.

Earlier, the acting chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council
(MUI), Ali Yafie, said that demonstrations during Ramadhan would
not present a problem provided they remained within the limits of
what was allowed during fasting. Condemning people and uttering
foul words were not allowed, he reminded students.

A number of demonstrations demanding an end to rallies during
Ramadhan have been staged in recent days. Ramadhan begins on
Sunday.

At his residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, on Friday,
Abdurrahman warned that rallies, and their frequent violence,
could foster hostility in a previously supportive public.

He said students should be thankful of the gains made even if
they did not conform to all their expectations. "Pak Harto
(former president Soeharto) is willing to be tried, while
President B.J. Habibie's administration is committed to law
enforcement."

Security personnel, he added, "should be well-behaved and
refrain from hastily hitting or shooting students. That's wrong.
They have to be able to organize themselves and avoid committing
mistakes".

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo asserted that
demonstrations should be conducted "in accordance with norms of
decency and the law", Antara reported.

"Do not force security personnel into a clash because it will
be a loss to us all," he said at Army headquarters. He appealed
to protesters to remember there were only four firearms for every
100 officers during demonstrations.

Nurcholish Madjid, who is the rector of Paramadina University,
was quoted by Antara as saying on Friday that it would be better
if students refrained from staging rallies to allow the public
and the students themselves to concentrate on religious duties.

Nurcholish, who is a former activist himself and chaired the
Association of Muslim Students (HMI) in the late 1960s, told a
forum of students that Ramadhan was a month for purification,
introspection and reflection.

"Rallies should be stopped, particularly if they are likely to
cause public unrest," he told his audience at the Students'
Ramadhan Dialog, a three-day forum which ended Friday in East
Jakarta. He cited widespread traffic congestion and clashes with
security personnel as two factors likely to induce people to act
in a manner not in keeping with the spirit of the fasting month.

On Friday, many newspapers carried photographs of students and
police clashing on Thursday afternoon.

"All student movements should ask themselves what they really
want," Nurcholish said.

In Dili, Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes
Belo also scolded students and urged them to act with restraint
during Ramadhan and around Christmas.

"How can you fight for (your) aspirations by parading all over
the city?" he was quoted by Antara as saying on Thursday.

However National Mandate Party chairman Amien Rais said on
SCTV on Thursday that if students aired the public's aspirations
"in a sweet manner" and did not break rules governing the
fasting, then it would be acceptable for them to continue
pressing the government for reform during Ramadhan.

Some student groups have said they plan to continue to air
their demands in public during Ramadhan, but in ways not
provocative to those observing the fasting. Others have said they
will confine their political activities to the campus until after
Idul Fitri.

Rallies, they said, would start in the late afternoon before
the breaking of the fast at dusk and more discussions and dialogs
would be held.

Rama Pramata from the University of Indonesia suggested last
week that students should use Ramadhan to prepare strategies for
the run up to the general election scheduled for next June.

"There is so much to do... This is a crucial moment and I
suggest that we stop wasting time," Rama said. (imn/anr/edt)