Students taking break to plan further action

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)