Student leaders ponder achievements

Student leaders ponder achievements

JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of anti-establishment student leaders from the mid-1960s gathered for a nostalgic meeting yesterday, asking themselves whether, 30 years on, they have accomplished the tasks that they had set out to do when they took to the streets.

Members of the Communication and Study Forum of the 1966 Generation (Fosko 66), some of them now very much part of the establishment, agreed that while there are reasons to be proud, there are still some deep-seated dissatisfactions in society.

The meeting at the newly-opened Hotel Regent, attended by some 50 exponents of Fosko 66, was to mark the 30th anniversary of the day when then-President Sukarno signed the historic March 11 Executive Order, giving in to some of the students' demands.

The order, known by Indonesians as Supersemar, empowered General Soeharto, who was firmly in command of the Army, to take every necessary measure to restore peace and order in the country that had been rocked by political upheavals since the abortive coup attempt in September 1965.

With that order, Gen. Soeharto, with the student movement behind him, outlawed the Indonesian Communist Party, which had been blamed for the coup. He also disbanded the cabinet.

March 11 has since been marked as the birth of the New Order, although Soeharto did not rise to power until the following year.

Some of those student leaders are now serving in President Soeharto's cabinet or other senior positions in the government. Others have become successful businesspeople.

Sugeng Saryadi, a member of Fosko 66 and now head of the business consortium Kodel Group, asked whether the political tools that have been established under the New Order era are sufficient to meet present day needs.

Among the political tools he listed is the political system, including the five-yearly general election. "Can these assets support the liabilities found in society?" he asked.

The New Order has restored constitutional life in Indonesia and upholds the supremacy of law. Indonesia has also built its economic engine, he said.

Many people may not entirely agree with what has been established, but like it or not, they have to work within the current framework, he said.

"It may not be perfect but that's life," Sugeng remarked.

Tato Pradjamanggala, a former activist in Bandung, West Java, maintained that as "proprietors" of the New Order, the 1966 Generation still has a duty to further advance the nation.

He argued that the existing faults found in the current system cannot be blamed on others. "If there is something wrong, then it is our fault, too, because we should have corrected it," Tato remarked.

He noted that the exponents of the '66 Generation have never clearly defined how they envisioned the economic and political system and thus urged that an open forum of dialog be done to specifically delve into these matters.

Tato argued that in the past they had only touched upon the direction of the New Order with being specific on the actual course of its implementation, stressing that it was part of their responsibility to do so.

Another exponent, Bambang Suharto, said that the struggle, which began 30 years ago, is an on-going task and did not stop with the establishment of the New Order.

He said the task for everyone now is to ensure a fair and just development, which benefits all the people.

Bambang, chairman of Kosgoro (a cooperative movement) and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, admitted that, as the years rolled by, the unity of the 1966 Generation had subsided somewhat, but he maintained that their commitment towards the goals of the New Order had not.

Sugeng Saryadi also admitted that there is an increasing division among the members of the 1966 Generation.

He lamented that the exponents are now being judged by their affiliations to one of the three political groupings.

"How can something like color become such a problem?" he said, referring to the fact that people connote a person's political ardor to the color which symbolizes a particular political party, which is yellow for Golkar, green for the United Development Party and red for the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

He called for stronger unity among members of the '66 Generation and underlined that it was this continuing cooperation which is one of the objectives of the their struggle.

Sugeng, known as a PDI supporter, called for stronger unity among his colleagues, going so far as to suggest that after the 1997 general election, they should demand for a coalition government that involves representatives of all three of the political groups. (mds)