Socialist Action /January 1999
Capitalist Politicians in Indonesia Outflanked by Student Radicals
By GERRY FOLEY
Political polarization is increasing rapidly as the social and political
crisis in Indonesia deepens. In the confrontation in mid-November between
government forces and protesters who had rejected the legitimacy of the
government of "constitutional continuity" that took the reins
after the resignation of veteran dictator Suharto, the procapitalist opposition
leaders were clearly bypassed.
The radical action committees took the lead. They mobilized tens of thousands
of students to oppose the special session of the puppet parliament of the
New Order regime and to demand the resignation of Suharto's stooge successor,
Habibie.
When the students were attacked by fascist-like gangs recruited by the
military and by the army itself, which shot down six protesters at Semanggi
bridge in Jakarta, up to a million of the poor masses came to their aid,
according to the official Indonesian news agency, Antara. The clashes plunged
the faltering regime into deeper crisis.
In the aftermath of the confrontation, one of the main bourgeois opposition
leaders, Abdurrahman Wahid, familiarly known as "Gus Dur," leader
of the largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, called for "national
reconciliation," not only with Habibie but even with the fallen dictator
Suharto.
The Dec. 7 issue of Kompas, a major Jakarta daily, reported that
"Gus Dur thinks that the way to prevent a social revolution is by a
common understanding: 'The entire elite, regardless of whether or not it
is in the government, whoever is seen as a leader by the people- must work
together.'"
The report continued, "Gus Dur hopes that there will be a meeting
between popular figures and government figures: 'I cannot invite Pak [Papa]
Habibie and Pak Wiranto [the head of the army] to my place. Perhaps it is
better if I went to meet them.'
"Gus Dur pointed out that social revolution is a situation in which
the people rebel against everything, when there is no authoritative government.
Gus Dur clearly expressed his worry about the growing tensions to which
there seems to be no end."
Gus Dur's fraternal appeal to "Pak" Wiranto in particular went
directly against the calls of the November demonstrators for the resignation
of the army chief who orchestrated the recruit of fascist-like gangs and
the deliberate massacre of students in order to suppress the demonstrators.
The Nahdlatul Ulama leader's position was a logical extension of the
common position taken by the bourgeois opposition figures at his home in
Ciganjur on the time of the November confrontation. But it represented a
dramatic widening of the gap that then opened between the bourgeois opposition
leaders and the radical movement.
Gus Dur's desperate attempt to "unite the elite" in order to
stem the tide of social revolution for the time being has fallen flat, indicating
how sharp the conflict is. Suharto and Habibie met with him all right, but
Habibie announced that he was not prepared to establish any ongoing formal
relations with the bourgeois opposition leaders. Gus Dur's maneuver, in
fact, was too blatant even for some moderates, who criticized him for betraying
the opposition.
The government's response to the November clashes has not been to reach
out to the bourgeois opposition but to accelerate its course toward repression.
Despite the fact that his attempt to mobilize gangs against the students
failed and disgraced him, "Pak" Wiranto launched a project for
setting up a permanent civilian auxiliary force on the model of gangs routed
in November by the people of Jakarta.
The proposed force has become known in Indonesian as the "Ratih,"
for "Raykat Terlatih," or "Trained People," and Wiranto
has proposed initially that it number about 40,000.
The right-wing Islamic daily Republilka, which was one of the
initiating sponsors of mobilizing conservative Muslims "against anarchy
and communism," admitted in its Dec. 23 issue that some people had
been worried by the experience with the Pam Swakarsa, the so-called Voluntary
Guards, in November.
Moreover, the paper reported, "There are those who suspect that
the formation of the Ratih is a crash program for maintaining the status
quo or for the interests of specific political groups. "
Nonetheless, the right-wing paper tried to defend the project by arguing
that the ratio of police to population was below the international standard
in Indonesia. This, of course, strains belief in what for the last 35 years
has been virtually a totalitarian dictatorship. It leaves out of the equation
the army, which, as in most Third World dictatorships, is really a police
force.
However, Republilka tried to sweeten the pill by saying that recruitment
to the Ratih would lessen unemployment, "which we know is a source
of social discontent. ... Therefore, recruitment to the Ratih and offering
material incentives has a double function in surmounting the national difficulties
[i.e., unrest and unemployment]."
In fact, it was precisely unemployed village youth who were the recruits
for the Pam Swakarsa-who got such a "warm" welcome from the people
of Jakarta in mid-November (about half a dozen of them were lynched as hated
mercenaries of the discredited regime).
Just in case some readers might wonder how the crisis-ridden Indonesian
economy could afford to pay part of the population to guard the rest, Republilka
noted that "Minister of Justice Muladi said that there is foreign financial
help, although he did not specify the amount."
Since the imperialist powers, in particular the United States, (the obvious
sources of "foreign financial help") have been the patrons of
the blood-thirsty military dictatorship from its origins in 1965-when it
was responsible for the murder of at least half a million people and perhaps
three times that-the reference to such aid must have set alarm bells ringing
in Indonesia.
The military has continued to send the army to attack demonstrators,
and clashes have been increasing and sharpening as sections of the protesters
are starting to protect themselves. Hypocritical complaints by army commanders
that they are really defending the students against armed thugs are probably
the music of the future as the military continues to seek to form fascist-type
auxiliaries.
When Gus Dur was forced to abandon his maneuver for wall-to-wall unity
between the government and the "responsible" opposition, he lamented
that disorder was now not local but spread throughout the archipelago. Curiously,
he mentioned only incidents of communal violence, such as the anti-Christian
riots in Ketapang, Jakarta; and the anti-Muslim riots in Kupang in Catholic
West Timor.
He also mentioned the killings of Muslim divines in Banyuwangi, east
Java. But he himself has said that he believes that the military, led by
"Pak" Wiranto, is behind these incidents.
The gyrations of Gus Dur are a clear expression of the incapacity of
the bourgeois opposition leaders to lead the mass struggle against the regime
of the New Order imperialist-backed dictatorship and its fascist gangs.
The revolutionary activists among the radical action groups are now in
a race against time to build a political alternative for the mass movement
that can forestall provocations and focus the rage of the impoverished and
brutalized masses.
Socialist Action /January 1999 |