Soeharto warns of destabilizing interest groups

Soeharto warns of destabilizing interest groups

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto warned the public yesterday
of interest groups exploiting socioeconomic disparities to
achieve their political ends.

"The efforts to improve the distribution of development gains
have been increasingly successful. But it's undeniable that
disparities are still common," he said.

The President made the remarks when addressing participants of
a national leadership meeting of former student activists grouped
in Laskar Ampera Arief Rachman Hakim at the presidential palace.

Soeharto said that the interest groups mean to undermine
Indonesia's unity on the pretext of defending the poor.

"They exploit discontented laborers, peasants and impoverished
communities in urban centers to serve their own interests," he
warned.

Laskar Ampera Arief Rachman Hakim is part of the so-called
Generation of 1966, which played a pivotal role in the emergence
of the New Order Government under Soeharto. Their demonstrations
in 1966 forced President Sukarno to step down and make way for
Soeharto, then an Army general.

The organization is named after Arief Rachman Hakim, a student
leader killed in one of the demonstrations. He became a martyr
and a rallying point for the students.

Several of the former student leaders now hold senior posts in
the cabinet and political organizations.

Present at the audience with the head of state were the
organization's top leaders Cosmas Batubara and Akbar Tandjung.

President Soeharto also warned that in Indonesian culture, a
mass rally is not an appropriate way to forward demands because
it is not only against the spirit of musyawarah, deliberation for
consensus, but can also provoked mass chaos.

"Therefore I call on the public to be mature. All differences
in opinions or interests should be settled in the spirit of
musyawarah."

He said that since independence in 1945, Indonesia has
survived various threats of disintegration from both outside and
within the country.

He stressed again the need for all Indonesians to uphold the
state ideology Pancasila which has proven an effective glue to
hold together the numerous ethnic groups with different cultural
and religious backgrounds.

The President pointed out that whenever Indonesia adopted
ideologies other than Pancasila, it was riddled by political
strife which threw the economy into chaos.

"Now that we enjoy political stability, Indonesia can carry
out development for its citizens' prosperity," said Soeharto, who
has been in power for over 30 years.

Laskar Ampera Arief Rachman Hakim chairman Djusril Djusan said
that the meeting, scheduled to run until Oct. 10, is being
attended by about 500 activists.

Djusril called on the government to speed up the drafting of
the internal security act to prevent the recurrence of riots like
those that rocked the capital on July 27.

The July riots, which claimed five lives and caused damages of
about US$85 million, were sparked by the violent takeover of the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters by a government-
sanctioned rebel faction.

The government has since accused the little-known leftist
Democratic People's Party (PRD) of inciting the riots. A dozen of
its key activists have been detained and they face subversion
charges. (imn)