Siswono calls for fair treatment of PRD members

JAKARTA (JP): Former youth activist Siswono Yudohusodo said over the weekend that the detained members of the Democratic People's Party (PRD) should be treated fairly and that the "radical youths" be given the opportunity to reform.

Siswono, also the minister of transmigration and resettlement of forest squatters, made the call during a political discussion held by the National Committee of Indonesian Youth. He then criticized the condemnation by various social and religious groups heaped on the small leftist youth organization accused of undermining the government by inciting the July 27 rioting in Jakarta.

"The youths, whose radical activities often might have disturbed security, are actually people who can be reformed," he said. "Those who committed radical actions during the July 27 riots should be treated well and in accordance with the law.

"They are still young. PRD chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko, for example, is the same age that Theo Sambuaga was when he was carrying out radical actions during the 1974 Malari student protest," he said. "Now Theo has turned out to be a very well behaved youth figure."

Siswono was referring to a Golkar member on the House Commission I for foreign, political and security affairs.

Theo Sambuaga was among the university student leaders who led an anti-Japanese demonstration in 1974 known by the Indonesian- acronym Malari. The Malari incident on Jan. 15 deteriorated into uncontrolled rioting that left Jakarta's main shopping and business areas paralyzed for days.

Budiman, 27, is among 10 PRD members who have been detained since mid-August for allegedly inciting the July 27 riots, which killed, according to the National Commission on Human Rights, five people and injured scores of others. The riots erupted after the storming of the PDI's headquarters -- then occupied by loyalists of the deposed Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) leader Megawati Soekarnoputri -- by supporters of the new PDI chairman Soerjadi.

The PRD members are now facing subversion charges, which can carry the death penalty. All are being held at the detention center of the Attorney General's Office in South Jakarta. The office has also detained labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan on the same charges.

Admitting that he was once sentenced to four years in prison in the 1960s for radicalism, Siswono cited himself as an example of how radicals could change into "better people".

"Now that the riots have been handled, and those considered to be behind the rioting have been detained, they should be treated well...because they will certainly be able to reform.

"Statements full of sarcasm, such as those coming from ulemas who condemn and state apparatus members who threaten to 'eliminate' and 'purge' (the activists) don't give the picture of a democratic situation," he said.

"Instead, those statements sound authoritarian."

In another part of his discussion, Siswono noted that the bureaucracy has grown to be very strong over the last 25 years. The increasing power of the bureaucracy has resulted in a perception that development is merely "state sponsored".

Now people are starting to demand a more open political system, he said. (imn/swe)