Seminar on Sukarno to go on

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto defended yesterday the government's plan to hold a controversial seminar on the late president Sukarno's downfall in 1966.

Soeharto said the seminar aimed to provide Indonesians with "accurate" information on what happened 30 years ago.

Debate has been raging on the seminar to be held this month. The President approved the seminar last week.

At the center of the debate is Sukarno's Nawaksara speech before a special session of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly which had questioned his stand on the abortive coup attempt in 1965, which was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.

The assembly rejected Sukarno's accountability speech, paving the way for his impeachment from the office he had held since 1945. Soeharto replaced Sukarno as President.

"Nawaksara led to a direct confrontation (pitting Sukarno) against the people's representatives, so that they decided to revoke their mandate," Soeharto said while inaugurating a monument dedicated to the 1966 generation.

Soeharto said the assembly had had a hard time finding a replacement for Sukarno before finally choosing him. He was then the acting president because Sukarno had signed a letter (Supersemar) on March 11, 1966, which gave him the authority to restore order after the failed coup.

The assembly appointed Soeharto, who played a pivotal role in putting down the communists, as president in 1968.

In Bali yesterday, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said the seminar would have historical interest and nobody should feel hurt by it.

The seminar would let Indonesians study their history and learn from past experiences, Moerdiono said after inaugurating a water supply project in Tampaksiring, 60 kilometers east of Denpasar.

"The seminar will improve our political life and state administration in future," Moerdiono was quoted by Antara as saying.

Moerdiono warned the people against suspicious interpretations of the seminar, reiterating that it would not affect the nation's respect for its founding fathers.

"Both Bung Karno and Bung Hatta have already been named national heroes, haven't they? Jakarta international airport was dedicated under their names and we have built statues and tombs for them," said Moerdiono.

Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945.

Importance

Sukarno's eldest daughter, Megawati Soekarnoputri, questioned yesterday the importance of the seminar, saying that people had already forgotten her father's speech.

"It was many years ago. Why shouldn't the seminar have been held in the years soon after the Nawaksara was delivered?" she told reporters at her home in South Jakarta.

Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno, one of her loyalists, raised the same question.

"Why should they only bother with Sukarno's accountability speech? Why don't they try to trace the birth of our state principles, Pancasila, and the background of the issuance of the Supersemar instead?" he asked.

The government has claimed it has lost the original copy of Supersemar. Moerdiono was the last government official to say that Indonesians should not make an issue of the missing document.

Yesterday, Arief Budiman, a sociologist and exponent of the student movement which supported the New Order government in 1966, welcomed the seminar but warned it would open debate on the New Order's legitimacy.

"We never knew what the speech was all about, because we would have rejected whatever Sukarno said then," Arief said. He was among the students who recommended that the assembly reject Sukarno's speech.

But Arief said the seminar would lead to academic discussions on Supersemar, which, along with Nawaksara, had given the New Order its legitimacy to hold the power.

House legislator Maj. Gen. Hari Sabarno of the Armed Forces supported the plan, but suggested the seminar serve as an academic, rather than emotion-driven, forum to discuss the validity of the constitutional mechanism which governs the presidency.

"There should be no intention to open old wounds, because such a mechanism could be pursued anytime, no matter who the president is," Hari said.

House legislator Aisyah Amini of the United Development Party (PPP) said the planned seminar had come at the right time.

"There have been indications that certain people want to breach the constitutional mechanism. That's why the seminar should remind the nation of the phenomenon," said Aisyah, who chairs House Commission I for political and security affairs.

She was referring to President Soeharto's recent warning that the government would not hesitate to clobber anyone trying to replace him unconstitutionally. (imn/amd)