By Adam Hanieh
ADELAIDE — Indonesian environmental and human rights activist Dipa Ramelan spoke here at a crowded public meeting on May 15. Dipa is being toured by Environmental Youth Alliance and AKSI(Indonesian action) to inform and encourage Australian solidarity with the oppressed Indonesian people.
Dipa spoke of the immense poverty experienced by a large section of Indonesian society, and the repression of those who struggle against it. He said the struggle for democracy in Indonesia was being led by students gathered in study groups around the country, who were uniting in struggle with peasants and workers.
Unlike the generation of student activists in the '60s, who regarded nationalism as the key focus of their struggle, the post-'80s students understood the problems in Indonesia to be structural, where the state had become a means of protecting the accumulation of capital by a tiny ruling clique.
Activist organisations in Indonesia worked under extreme hardships, with laws limiting the number of people who can gather to five. The government had also recently passed a law under which it can bar the return of Indonesian citizens from abroad if it considers them to have been acting in a "subversive" manner.
Dipa said that activists were encouraging a boycott of the next general election, which he called a "window dressing and sham to placate western governments". All presidential nominees must be vetted by President Suharto, who has remained unchallenged for 25 years.
Dipa finished by stressing the importance of solidarity with the Indonesian people and highlighting the role Australian business played in the exploitation of Indonesia. Workers in Indonesia were often paid as little as US$0.50 a day, and free trade unions were banned.
Dipa's next stop will be in Hobart, and he will be speaking at the Resistance National Conference in Melbourne July 4-6.