Sri Bintang and friends charged with subversion
Sri Bintang and friends charged with subversion
JAKARTA (JP): Dissident politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas and
two fellow leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Union Party
(PUDI) were formally charged with subversion yesterday, in part
for calling on the people to boycott the May 29 general election.
Attorney General Singgih said that Bintang, Julius Usman and
Saleh Abdullah were suspects in an official investigation into
their political activities in recent months.
The call to boycott the election was not the only offense they
had committed, Singgih said. "They are also being detained
because of other PUDI activities, including its demand to revise
the 1945 Constitution."
The three men went to the Attorney General's Office in South
Jakarta Wednesday to answer an invitation to explain their
behavior. They never left the building.
Several government and military figures and legislators
debated this week the ethics of Bintang's Idul Fitri card, which
was sent to many senior government officials, including Vice
President Try Sutrisno.
The card contained PUDI's three-point agenda: boycott the 1997
election, reject President Soeharto's reelection, and prepare for
a post-Soeharto era after 1998.
In the card, Bintang quoted a verse from the Koran which said
that God would not change people's fate if they did not want to
change.
Singgih denied the reports that the arrests were made in
response to growing public pressure.
The Attorney General's Office has apparently been preparing
the case for some time but it only made its move this week after
collecting enough evidence to press charges. "I gave the order to
watch PUDI as soon as it was founded," he said.
Bintang and his colleagues formed PUDI in May 1996 to
challenge the legality of the current three-party political
system.
Bintang is already facing a 34-month-jail sentence for
insulting President Soeharto. He has remained a free man pending
his appeal in the Supreme Court.
The Association of Indonesian Legal and Human Rights
Assistance immediately called for the release of Bintang and his
two friends, saying they could not be prosecuted for their
political views.
"Differences in political views should be settled in a
political forum, not in a court," executive director Hendardi
said.
The Attorney General's office yesterday also questioned 78-
year old Subadio Sastrosatomo, a former leader of the defunct
Indonesian Socialist Party and a parliamentarian in the 1950s, in
connection with a 22-page book he wrote.
The government has already banned the book, New Era, New
Leader: Badio Rejects the New Order Regime's Engineering because
it believes the content could provoke unrest and create negative
public opinion of the government.
"It is inappropriate for an old grandpa to publish a book that
could stir public unrest," Singgih said. (imn/05)