Rights activists soothe public in protest fray

Rights activists soothe public in protest fray

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights activists have called for fair
trials to be afforded to three citizens accused of involvement in
recent demonstrations against the Indonesian government.

Muladi and Marzuki Darusman attempted to defuse mounting
pressure for legal action against the three: Goenawan Mohamad,
Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Yeni Rosa Damayanti.

Both members of the National Commission on Human Rights,
Muladi and Marzuki said the three, allegedly involved in a spate
of demonstrations against President Soeharto in Germany earlier
this month, deserved impartial judicial treatment should they be
brought to trial.

"The sooner this case has been cleared up, the better," said
Muladi, who is rector of Semarang's Diponegoro University.

Marzuki urged the public not to be dragged into the furor
surrounding the matter and to uphold the principle of the
presumption of innocence.

"This case is indeed startling, but there's no need for the
public to over-react," he said yesterday.

Also making a stand in defense of Bintang was Moh. Mansur, a
fellow legislator of the Moslem-based United Development Party
(PPP).

He lashed out at the party's leaders who, he said, had slapped
negative labels on Bintang before investigating the allegations.

"Why did (PPP chairman) Ismail Hasan Metareum hastily
apologize to President Soeharto, without trying to collect
evidence on Bintang's (alleged) involvement first of all," Mansur
asked.

"How could he do that, sacrifice a member of his own party?"

Mansur said Ismail Hasan's decision to apologize to the
President had helped to create "negative opinion" and had caused
the public to believe that Bintang was already a suspect. "He's a
still a witness, and is being questioned as one," Mansur said.

Mansur, who was a member of the President's entourage in
Hannover during one demonstration, said he had met Bintang there
and was convinced of his colleague's innocence.

"I'm ready to testify (in defense of Bintang) to the police
and the Attorney General's office," he said.

Complicity

Muladi said that Bintang, Goenawan and Yeni, if found guilty,
could be charged, not only with defamation, but also with assault
that might have lead to bodily harm being sustained by the
President.

"Those people, if they're really involved, may be charged with
an even more serious crime, stone throwing... there's assault
involved," Muladi told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He said the authorities could also bring the three to court on
charges of complicity. "If these people are really found to have
been involved in the demonstrations, then it's a shame, because
no matter what, citizens have to respect their nation," he said.

"That's a principle which is not negotiable," he said.

Marzuki, on the other hand, asserted that public
demonstrations were a "valid means" of expressing political
aspirations, even given the existence of other democratic
political institutions, such as legislative bodies and the press.

"Demonstrating is not a crime, it is a valid form of voicing
one's aspirations," he said, adding that the right to demonstrate
should be respected as one of a person's political rights.

However, people who chose demonstrating as a means of voicing
political concerns should also respect the existing regulations,
and not harm "other people's dignity", he said.

Another comment on demonstrations came from R. Soeprapto,
chairman of the national agency for the propagation of the state
ideology, Pancasila, in Bogor yesterday.

Soeprapto said that any Indonesians who "supported and
sponsored" the demonstration in the German city of Dresden "lack
self control and don't love their country and nation".

"Pancasila has regulated everything," he said. "If we view the
case from the values contained in the ideology, we'll see how
many weaknesses those people succumbed to," he said, as quoted by
the Antara news agency.

He said that his comments applied only if the people really
were involved in the demonstration. "If they're not proven to
have been involved, then the demonstration might have been
initiated by other parties who dislike seeing the progress that
Indonesia has achieved," he said.

Nevertheless, he said it was regrettable that there were
people with a poor sense of nationalism and lacking in love of
their homeland, he said.

"There are people who are out for their own interests only,
even if, in the process, they have to sacrifice the interests of
their country," he said.

Soeprapto said Amnesty International, whom President Soeharto
has accused of organizing the demonstrations against him, was an
example of a party "who envies the progress that Indonesia has
achieved".

"...Indonesia is likely to become the fifth most advanced
nation in the world in the year 2020," he said. "This will create
problems for other countries."

"Therefore, there are foreign bodies, which are critical of
Indonesia, which are willing to do anything to obstruct the pace
of Indonesia's progress," he said. (swe/har/29)