Unionist, academic deny they are communists

Unionist, academic deny they are communists

JAKARTA (JP): Labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan and academic
George Junus Aditjondro denied yesterday the military's claim
that they are communists.

Mochtar, a leader of the unrecognized Indonesian Prosperous
Labor Union (SBSI), described the accusation, made publicly on
Monday by Armed Forces General Affairs chief Maj. Gen. Soeyono,
as "slanderous".

"Can he say when I became a communist?" he asked, in an
interview with The Jakarta Post. "I'm planning to sue Soeyono,"
he said, adding that he is awaiting the views of SBSI leaders in
the provinces as to what action should be taken.

Meanwhile, George also denied being a communist.

"I am a Gandhi-ist. I am a leftist, yes, I am a socialist,
yes, but I believe more in Ghandi's socialism than Marxism,"
George said, as quoted by AFP, adding that he stands for human
rights and freedom of association.

On Monday Soeyono said that Muchtar, George and
internationally-renowned Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer
were communists and were linked to recent incidents of violence
which the military says are aimed at destabilizing the
government.

Mochtar was recently exonerated by the Supreme Court of
charges of inciting last year's labor uprising in the North
Sumatran capital Medan.

George, a lecturer of the Satya Wacana Christian University in
Salatiga, Central Java, is currently conducting research in
Australia. He left Indonesia this year while under police
investigation on suspicion of insulting the government in a
seminar.

Soeyono said Muchtar was a communist because his father led a
bloody communist party-sponsored strike in Bandarbetsi, North
Sumatra, in the 1960s.

Muchtar, however, denied that his father had been involved in
the Bandarbetsi riot.

Armed Forces chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Suwarno Adiwijaya told
The Post yesterday that the three names are only part of a list
of people the military believes are communists or activists of
"formless" organizations who are out to undermine the government.

He said that, by announcing their names, the military means to
remind the public of the latent danger of communism so that it
can remain vigilant.

Soeyono's statement received mixed reactions yesterday.

Legislator A.A. Oka Mahendra of the ruling Golkar party said
the military must have been armed with sufficient hard evidence
before naming names. "Otherwise the government would not have
made the claims publicly."

Oka said that Armed Forces' announcement should serve as a
warning to the public to remain vigilant against the latent
danger of communism, as described by senior government officials,
including President Soeharto.

Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid dismissed the move as a trick
to divert public attention away from the various problems facing
the government.

"It's usual to find a common enemy when you are in trouble.
There is nothing unusual about it," he said in a seminar here
yesterday.

Abdurrahman said that current events resemble those of the
1970s, when conflicts within the top echelons of the political
elite flared up, manifesting themselves in the well-known 1974
riots.

"It is like a cycle. The power holders are trying to put the
lid on the political openness they previously encouraged," he
said. "When the crisis is over, openness will be encouraged
again," Abdurrahman said.

Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and Tohap
Simanungkalit of the SBSI both argued that the military must
prove its accusations in a court of law.

"Soeyono has trampled on the presumption of innocence in
singling out Muchtar Pakpahan as a communist. He (Soeyono) has
disrespected the rule of law," Simanungkalit said.

Hendardi said he is worried that the government will continue
labeling people as "communists", adding that it is a technique
for scaring people who do not share the government's views.

"There is fear that the government will brand organizations
which it cannot control as dangerous 'formless organizations',"
he said. (pan/imn/rms/anr)