Students to maintain opposition role

Students to maintain opposition role

JAKARTA (JP): University students vowed to continue with their
street demonstrations in the absence of any opposition political
parties to control the newly established government.

"No political parties have declared that they truly want to be
the opposition," Bachtiar Firdaus, chairman of the Executive
Student Body of the University of Indonesia (BEM-UI), told The
Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He welcomed the newly elected Abdurrahman Wahid-Megawati
Soekarnoputri team, saying that they truly represent the
Indonesia people.

But he suggested that a strong opposition was needed to
pressure the ruling collective government to always uphold
democratic principles and the supremacy of the law and the
people.

"It is disturbing. There should be opposition camps which can
critically apply pressure on the new government so that it will
never become like the regime we had in the past, the New Order.

"We will therefore declare ourselves to be an opposition force
in the country," Bactiar said.

The elected president and vice president both have broad-based
support from the grassroots and the political elite; a strong
composition which could lead to an oligarchic government.

Abdurrahman is chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the
largest Muslim organization in the country, with 30 million
members. While Megawati is the chairwoman of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), a party which
garnered the most votes (approximately 35 million) in the June 2
general election.

Bachtiar said the students would closely observe the
government's activities and policies, and continue to pressure
the government so that "it will not betray the reform movement
that the whole nation has agreed to participate in".

No more mistakes

Another student activist, identified only as Mixil, shared
Bachtiar's opinion, saying that students should not repeat the
mistakes of the 1966 Student Movement (Angkatan 66) which failed
to control the former president Soeharto's regime.

"The Angkatan 1966 students failed to control Soeharto during
the critical 1966-1970 period.

"It was too late for them to put pressure on him (Soeharto)
because Soeharto's position became stronger after 1971, as he had
since then turned out to be a dictator," said Mixil, an activist
of Forum Kota (City Forum), a loose alliance of 30 Jakarta
private university student organizations.

Student activists of the Angkatan 66 helped the Army topple
the Old Order regime under first president Sukarno and promote
Army leader, the then Maj. Gen. Soeharto, to prominence in 1966.
Soeharto was inaugurated as president replacing Sukarno in a
Special session of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly
(MPRS), led by Army Gen. (ret) Abdul Harris Nasution.

Several Angkatan 1966 leaders were then absorbed into
Soeharto's Cabinet line up, including the new House of
Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung and former state
minister of public housing Cosmas Batubara.

Mixil said students would return to the streets if the new
government ignored the people's will.

"We respect Gus Dur (Abdurrahman Wahid) and Mega (Megawati
Sukarnoputri). But if they make mistakes -- such as establishing
a new Cabinet which still accommodates elements of the New Order
-- we will stage protests on the streets," said Mixil.

Anton, a Forbes (Collective Forum) student activist, suggested
however that street protests against the State leadership team
would only trigger clashes between supporters of both Abdurrahman
and Megawati.

"Gus Dur has broad support from the Islamic community, while
Mega is strongly backed by nationalists.

"If we stage street protests, we'll probably have to deal with
supporters of both," he said.

But Bachtiar disagreed saying that students should eliminate
such fundamentalist sentiments form their movement.

"Once the government makes a mistake, we should stage protests
regardless of ideology or religion," Bachtiar said.(asa)