Siswono calls for fair treatment of PRD members

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)