There are good and bad dictators, Permadi tells court

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Controversial soothsayer Permadi Satrio Wiwoho, who is on trial on charges of blasphemy, admitted in court yesterday of calling Prophet Muhammad a "dictator", but stressed that there were good dictators and bad ones.

Permadi told the Sleman District Court that the government prosecutors cut parts of his remarks, made during a seminar at the Gadjah Mada University in April 1994.

He said he had made the remarks in response to a question from the floor and that it was the questioner who first remarked that Prophet Muhammad had immense power bestowed in him.

So, in response to the question, Permadi recalled, he stressed that a dictator was not necessarily bad, depending on how one used the power. "But this last part of the sentence had been omitted by the government prosecutors. If you listen to the original tape, these words were there."

Another statement of his that had been manipulated by the prosecutors was when the soothsayer stressed that in spite of the immense power Prophet Muhammad had, he used it to uphold the principles of "truth and justice".

"Could such words be construed as sowing hatred among the Islamic community or denigrating Prophet Muhammad?" Permadi asked. "If they (the prosecutors) present my sentence in full, it will become apparent that I revere Prophet Muhammad."

The prosecutors admitted that they used parts of Permadi's remarks in their dossier, stressing that "this did not change the intention, connotation and substance of the crime committed."

The important thing was that Permadi said the words that were tantamount to insulting Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic community, Donny Kathneza, the chief prosecutor, said.

The prosecutors, Permadi and his lawyers were locked in heated argument yesterday to convince Judge Ismet Ilahoede to try or dismiss the case. The trial was adjourned to Thursday.

Permadi accused Din Syamsuddin, a young Moslem scholar and politician of the ruling Golkar organization, of launching the campaign to have him prosecuted.

He said that the prosecutors had simply based their case on a tape recording of the seminar that had already been cut in parts by Syamsuddin. "They completely disregarded the complete version of the tape, copies of which are now in possession of the Yogyakarta Police and the seminar organizers."

He recalled that it was Syamsuddin's public accusation against him in February that inflamed the Moslem people in Indonesia and led to the current prosecution. (02/emb)