`We must not be deceived by Habibie's tricks'

Student actions and the people's uprising have cornered the New Order regime. This does not mean that the regime intends to fulfil the people's demands for total reform. To stem the advance of demands for reform, the regime is combining acts of repression with democratic concessions.

The Habibie “government”, Suharto's puppet, recently announced a number of concessions, including the release of up to 15 political prisoners (but excluding Indonesian Communist Party members or East Timorese prisoners), revision of the five 1985 political laws and new elections with an increase in the number of parties allowed to participate.

[The five laws passed in 1985 allow for only three recognised political parties; ban party activity from villages and small towns; allow the government to appoint 575 non-elected members (75 representing the military) to the People's Consultative Assembly; impose a single, state-defined ideology on all social, political and cultural organisations; and give the state the right to intervene in the internal affairs of organisations.]

Habibie has done all this to give the impression that this “new government” is democratic. In this way he hopes to get support internationally and from within the country, and to appease the people's resistance. What the Habibie “government” has done is only a political concession, not reform.

These concessions have created illusions on the part of a number of activists and the mass media. They see the concessions as a sign that Habibie is carrying out a process of “democratisation”.

But not everyone has been deceived by Habibie and his friends' tricks. Demands continue for Habibie to resign, for the holding of a special session [of the People's Consultative Assembly, which “elected” Suharto in March], for the abolition (not revision) of the 1985 political laws, for the withdrawal of the dual function of the military, for the release of all political prisoners and for a referendum for the people of East Timor.

Mass actions continue on campuses in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities. Large numbers of people reject Habibie -- hundreds of thousands in each city. The number of people mobilised reached 1 million in Yogyakarta, Central Java. In cities where previously there had been no mass actions, such as Banda Aceh (North Sumatra), mass actions have emerged.

In Aceh, thousands of students, the majority Muslims, have come out into the streets. This shows that the Suharto regime cannot deceive the Islamic community by appointing Habibie, who is the ex-chairperson of the Islamic Scholars Association (an organisation created by Suharto), as president.

We must not be deceived by these tricks of Habibie. There must be no compromise. We must continue to hold mass actions so that total reform can truly begin.

Indications that real reform has begun would be:

1. Suharto (and those who committed political crimes) are arrested and tried in a free and independent court.

2. New multi-party elections are held, organised by an independent institution, not the “government”.

3. The companies of the families of Suharto, Habibie, Harmoko and others are nationalised in the interests of all Indonesian people.

4. Wealth resulting from corruption seized.

5. The 1985 political laws and the dual function of the armed forces are abolished (not just reviewed).

6. The puppet People's Consultative Assembly and parliament (which was formed undemocratically by Suharto) are abolished.

7. A referendum to determine the future of East Timor held.

8. All political prisoners, without exception, are released.

Such total reform will not be carried out by Habibie, Suharto's puppet, but by the people. 

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