'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)