Students taking break to plan further action
JAKARTA (JP): In honor of the Ascension Day of Prophet Muhammad on Tuesday, students across the country took a break from demonstrations.
Students were however planning further action, and in Jakarta they were checking on injured colleagues at hospitals.
The Black Friday tragedy has all but dampened students' insistence on keeping up their rallies.
The groups comprise both those for and against the results of the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly. All students are adamantly against the decree adopted by the session which justified the continued representation of the Armed Forces in the Assembly and the House of Representatives.
Student groups say they will press on for a transitional government, and for the Armed Forces' (ABRI) dual function to be revoked. Many have also dismissed the subversion charges slapped on government critics currently under police questioning.
"We will continue to stage protests until this country has a democratic transitional government which is free from former president Soeharto, President B.J. Habibie and their cronies," said Adian, a leader of Forkot (Forum Kota).
Speaking to The Jakarta Post Tuesday at Forkot's base at the Indonesian Christian University in Cawang, East Jakarta, Adian and others were creating red ornamental flowers for the group's "sympathetic action" scheduled for Wednesday.
He admitted that students were tired and hungry.
"We are busy, helping our injured friends... but we believe the people are behind us. Taxi drivers, housewives, people from all walks of life have given donations.
"Coughs and colds are usual. Bullets and rocks won't scare us away." Forkot comprises 36 campuses and has been labeled "communist" by some parties for its comparatively radical stance. Forkot claimed some vigilantes were still harassing them.
Forkot's rejection of the session results differs from Forum Salemba, the Association of Moslem Students (HMI), the Indonesian Moslem Action Student Front (KAMMI), the Muhammadiyah Students' Association, the Indonesian Students Forum (Forma) and the Yogyakarta Communication Forum of Moslem Students.
These groups released a joint statement Monday, saying that the Special Session and its results were constitutional.
"The Special Session is one of the most important phases towards a democratic Indonesia," it said. The results were not perfect, the statement noted, "but we have to respond to it in a manner which is elegant, wise and anti-anarchy."
Billy of Forum Salemba said his group wants to fight for changes through campus. "We just want to remind other students that such movements as street rallies, especially in current conditions, are very risky," Billy, who also chairs UI's school of medicine senate, said.
Adian and Ki Joyo Sardo, another student, acknowledged they could not contain the masses involving "provocateurs," who they blamed for looting and attempts at arson on Saturday.
Forkot's Adian said the current government was not legitimate, a result "of a deceitful general election and a corrupted government which was politically and morally crippled." The Communication Forum of Jakarta Student Senates (FKSMJ), East Jakarta's Jatiwaringin Forum, the National Coalition and dozens of political parties were also among those demanding a transitional government, he said.
Adian reiterated that his group had also rejected the March General Session of the Assembly, which had reinstalled Soeharto for a seventh term, and its results.
Regarding the Semanggi tragedy he said Forkot calls for the resignation of both Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto and also Habibie from the presidency.
Sardo, a member of the Big Family of the University of Indonesia, said the shootings could easily be labeled "a 'procedural' mistake like the recent Trisakti incident." Demanding the end of ABRI's dual role, he said, "There will always be Wirantos or Habibies if the system is unchanged."
The University's Big Family also rejects the session results and urges the immediate establishment of a "People's Council", consisting of all of the nation's components.
Lutfi of the Indonesian Moslem Students Association, PMII, lambasted what he said was the "rulers' effort to divert people's attention" from the Semanggi tragedy.
"They'll use anything to break the student movement. They even hire crooks and naive people with Islam as a mask," he said, citing the Volunteer Security Units wearing bandannas praising Allah who were "pitted against students."
"I myself am a Moslem... Now they've created this 'subversion' issue. Therefore I call for students to unite," Lutfi added, echoed by others. (edt)