Socialist Action /September 2000
Indonesian Politicians Spar as Country
Slides into Crisis
By GERRY FOLEY
For the last two months, in its coverage of Indonesian
developments the capitalist press has focused on an obscure tug of war between
President Abdul Rahman Wahid ("Gus Dur"), elected as a representative
of the "democratic" movement, and the parliament, which continues
to be dominated by former supporters of the fallen military regime.
In an immediate way, the conflict has highlighted
the role still being played by the former dictatorship's party, Golkar,
which was organized in many respects like a fascist party, incorporating
mass organizations within its structure.
Gus Dur was elected president over Megawati Sukarnoputri,
daughter of the populist leader who presided over the first phase of Indonesian
independence. His victory was achieved thanks to the votes of the Golkar
deputies, despite the fact that Megawati got by far the biggest vote in
the election.
The supporters of the dictatorship have rallied
around an ideology of right-wing Islamicism; whereas Megawati is not only
a woman and identified with the populism of her father but is also identified
with the religious syncretism and Hinduism that dominates on her home island
of Bali.
Gus Dur is a moderate Muslim cleric and did not
have the radical associations that Megawati did. That made him an acceptable
compromise candidate between the "democratic" opposition and the
unreconstructed or only slightly reconstructed supporters of the old regime.
He had also made major gestures of "reconciliation" with the former
rulers.
In this latest conflict, however, the Golkar deputies
backed Megawati against Gus Dur, obviously out of resentment of some of
the concessions the latter has had to make to the democratic movement and
to movements for national liberation. He has removed General Wiranto, the
dictatorship's military chief, offered autonomy to the oppressed nationalities,
and proposed repeal of the law outlawing "Communism."
The fact that Megawati was prepared to accept support
from Golkar shows that she really does not represent a more radical alternative
to Gus Dur and would almost certainly be as lukewarm a reformer as he has
been, if not even cooler. For example, Megawati seems to have a less flexible
position toward the oppressed nationalities.
Putting Megawati formally in charge of the government
could for a time restore some of its reformist luster. But it would still
cause problems with the right-wing Muslim movement. Moreover, Megawati's
politically passive role as Gus Dur's vice president has dimmed her attraction
as a "democrat."
However, far more important than the parliamentary
sparring match, the debate provoked by the attack on Gus Dur revealed that
the crisis that brought down the dictatorship and the mass radicalization
that followed are continuing to develop.
For example, movements of small farmers demanding
return of the land stolen by Sukarno and his cronies and against the destruction
of agricultural land by imperialist mining concerns protected by the dictatorship
have become increasingly widespread.
On June 19 Reuters reported violent clashes between
small farmers and police in East Java: "Indonesian police have shot
dead two farmers and wounded scores more in two days of clashes over land
compensation claims in East Java province, police and witnesses said on
Monday.
"Police said they opened fire on 400 machete-wielding
farmers near the town of Blitar on Monday. The farmers were protesting close
to a clove plantation owned by local firm PT Perkebunan Branggah. They claimed
the plantation company forced them to give up the land 20 years ago.
"'One person was killed and about 16 others
were injured,' Blitar police chief Lieutenant-Colonel Anang Iskandar told
Reuters, insisting that police only used rubber bullets.
"It was the second clash in 24 hours. On Sunday
one farmer was shot dead and seven wounded when some 400 protesters went
on a rampage, burning several buildings on the plantation compound. It was
unclear if police made any arrests.
"Land clashes and other violence have become
common across Indonesia since the fall of former autocratic president Suharto
in 1998 amid widespread economic and social chaos."
Over May and June, the Indonesian currency lost
30 percent of its value and the stock market fell by 25 percent. The Indonesian
bureau of statistics is now predicting that economic growth for this year,
supposedly a period of recovery, will total only about 1.4 percent, after
the country has lost up to 50 percent of its output since 1997.
Indonesia is now the world's most indebted country,
with a total foreign debt of $l70 billion, more than its GNP. Debt service
now eats up more than 50 percent of foreign currency earnings.
According to a survey of a World Bank monitoring
agency, more than 40 percent of textile and garment workers have lost their
jobs, and more than 70 percent of building workers. More than 40 percent
of those classified as poor before the crisis have had to sell their few
belongings-including TVs, radios, and clothing-to survive.
On Java, where about half of the country's total
population live, millions of unemployed workers have been driven from the
cities back into the villages, swelling the movement of poor peasants demanding
land. At the same time, the sugar industry, the second largest agricultural
industry after rice, is now virtually bankrupt, since the IMF forced Indonesia
to drop its tariff barrier and allow the country to be flooded by cheap
sugar. The market for rice farmers has also been undermined by imports of
U.S. rice under the cover of "humanitarian aid."
Police headquarters for Jakarta has reported about
600 strikes since January, with more than 200 for April alone. The strike
movement and unionization seem to be snowballing despite the economic crisis.
These facts are highlighted in an article by Indonesia
expert Mark Lane published in the June 28 issue of the Australian socialist
weekly, Green Left. He notes that the economic and social situation in Indonesia
is more crisis-ridden now than at any time in the 31 years he has been visiting
the country, and he predicts a coming social and political explosion that
will dwarf the movement that led to the downfall of the dictatorship.
Socialist Action /September 2000 |