'Watch out for the emergence of new comunism'
'Watch out for the emergence of new comunism'
JAKARTA (JP): The conventional screening system used to net
communist-aligned citizens is no longer effective because a "new-
style communism", not detectable by the current system, has
arisen in Indonesia, according to a senior official.
Suhardiman, Vice Chairman of the Supreme Advisory Board, said
yesterday that the "new-style communism" currently looms as a
potential threat to the state ideology Pancasila and to the
country.
"The 30 years since the 1965 abortive communist coup attempt
have provided enough time for former members of the Indonesian
Communist Party and their followers to re-establish their power,"
he said.
Due to changing times, however, the techniques and methods
used by the now-defunct party to achieve its goal have changed,
to appear more "legal, constitutional and peaceful"; on one hand
promoting Pancasila but on the other making it an ambivalent
concept, Suhardiman said.
The new communists would base their activities on
"globalization, nationalism and Marxism" which are more realistic
in this age, he said. They would infiltrate the country through
culture, religion, the socio-political system, economics and
technology, according to Suhardiman.
"They will no longer build their base from the bottom, through
workers and farmers. Instead they will build it from the top
through the bureaucracy, the technocracy and capitalism by
supporting neo-feudalism, which has been widening the gap between
the rich and the poor," Suhardiman said.
"To do so, they will make sure they have political security in
the form of protection from power-holders and legality with which
they declare themselves as the true adherers to Pancasila," he
added.
He predicted that the new-style communism would also provoke a
sentiment of "anti-stability", leading to a sharp increase in
social criticism and correction.
Succession
Suhardiman said that to crush the new movement, the people
needed to establish a definite system for the presidential
succession which he was convinced would take place in 1998.
To counter the "people power" provoked by the new-style
communism, he said, a democratic system must be genuinely
implemented and sources of internal conflict within various
political and social organizations must be swept out.
Suhardiman, who is a retired military officer, declined to
elaborate on which groups in Indonesia he regarded as followers
of the "new-style communism".
PDI Chairperson Megawati, whose party is currently facing
allegations of harboring some 300 leftists, recently suggested
that if there were any questions of "unclean political
background" the National Agency for Stability and Security should
screen not only members of her party but also those of the other
political organizations.
Meanwhile Albert Hasibuan and Maj. Gen. Soegiri from the
National Commission on Human Rights said in Bandar Lampung
yesterday that they considered the screening system as
unnecessary because once a person had been declared to have
communist links he had no way of defending himself.
They said, as quoted by Antara, that there was no way for
persons so accused to defend their good names, because this
country did not yet possess a special legal procedure for the
purpose.
The chairman of the United Development Party, Ismail Hasan
Metareum, has said that a screening of all members of socio-
political organizations in the country would be "inefficient".
He said that screening was only needed for the organizations'
leaders, who are likely to have the ability to influence the
party members.(pwn)