Sense and nonsense of the communist threat

Sense and nonsense of the communist threat

By J. Soedjati Djiwandono

JAKARTA (JP): For the past 29 years, since the tragedy of the
abortive communist coup attempt on Sept. 30, 1965, Indonesians
have constantly been warned against the latent communist danger.
We have always been reminded to be vigilant.

This essay is not intended to commemorate that tragic event
which is known locally by its popular Gestapu acronym. But it is,
indeed, to remember that day. When editorializing to remember the
"great patriotic war," particularly in reference to the siege of
Leningrad, now back to its original name, St.Petersburg, a Soviet
newspaper once wrote, "No one is forgotten, nothing is
forgotten."

With such an undertone, we can ponder again the meaning and
significance of that traumatic experience almost three decades
ago. Always to be vigilant against something we don't even know
exactly what it is, makes no sense at all.

For one thing, if the latent threat is to be perceived as
being externally sourced, then it is no more than a myth. The
communist system, and thus the communist ideology, has been
discredited, and hence the crumbling of most communist regimes.
This has been a severe blow to the prestige of the remaining
communist nations, which since then have been preoccupied almost
entirely, and each almost alone, with the struggle to survive by
muddling through economic and political reforms. Thus rather than
venturing to advance that cause of "international communism,"
which has now been dumped into the dustbin of history, they have
been trying to court other nations -- non-communist ones at that
-- to get help in promoting the aims of their reforms.

For another, if the so-called latent communist danger is to be
perceived as internal in nature, the repeated warning has never
had its operational value. Indeed, in practice it has largely
meant unfounded suspicion of everyone having the possibility of
involvement in the abortive coup, or of being influenced by
communism, whatever that means -- hence the longtime practice of
requiring everyone applying for a job or membership of an
organization to prove their innocence by presenting the necessary
but meaningless formal documents to that effect. Needless to say,
this is contrary to the principle of the presumption of
innocence.

The fact that such a requirement has applied also to young men
and women who were small children, perhaps toddlers at the time
of the Gestapu affair, or even born since then, has been sheer
folly. Fortunately, the practice seems to have died away.

Does communism still have a future in this country? That is
the key question. If there is perceived injustice, oppression,
exploitation and abuse of power; if the political system is not
working; if the state fails to deliver the goods; then the need
may still be felt for some sort of an organized political
protest. And such an organization of political protest, as a
scholar in communist affairs put it, "armed with an emotionally
reassuring set of action-based theories," and seen to promise a
better alternative to the existing system, it may well subscribe
to undemocratic means.

Part of the strength and attraction of Marxism or communist is
that, as the same scholar has put it:

"To the poor, the unemployed, and the underprivileged and
alienated, Marxism offered an explanation of their plight and a
ray of hope for the future. To middle-class intellectuals, it
appeared to provide a coherent method of examining social
problems, a plausible critique of capitalism, and a blueprint for
an efficient,... just and ultimately peaceful world. To those
with a taste for political activism, it was an ideology with
which to arise and excite the masses."

But what's in a name? The vocabulary of politics is so elastic
and imprecise, so that ultimately, he concludes, "What
matters,...is how responsive a system is to the need of that
individual it is designed to serve, rather than what people
choose to call it."

That is our real challenge. By meeting that challenge, we
safeguard our Pancasila state against any threat from either the
extreme left or extreme right.

The writer is a member of the board of directors at the Centre
for Strategic and International Studies.