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)