Indonesians demand: Army out!
By Max Lane
At least 15 dead — including five university students and one high school activist — and more than 300 seriously injured: that was the cost of the stage-managed meeting of the Indonesian regime's People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which pushed through decrees confirming the doctrine of the "dual function" of the armed forces. The meeting ended on November 13.
Ida Nuraini, a member of the radical People's Democratic Party's (PRD) central leadership council, was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet and is in a serious condition in a Jakarta hospital.
There are unconfirmed reports that two activists from the Megawati Supporters' Committee (KPM) were also killed. Other PRD student activists are also unaccounted for (see accompanying appeal).
The deaths and injuries were caused by troops under the orders of armed forces chief General Wiranto shooting into the crowds of peaceful protesters.
The establishment daily newspaper Kompas described the soldiers' shooting as membabi buta — "like that of a blind pig". PRD activists contacted by Green Left Weekly agreed.
MPR
The MPR failed to alter the role of the military in the political system established by the dictator Suharto after the 1965 bloodbath. The 1000-member body, comprising mostly people appointed or approved by Suharto (with a few appointed by Suharto's successor, B.J. Habibie), approved the domination of the armed forces over the political system.
Fifty-five military officers will be appointed to the Indonesian parliament. The military structure, which reaches into every village, remained untouched.
The timetable for elections and a new sitting for the MPR remains intact, guaranteeing Habibie the presidency until at least December 1999. The elections will be organised and implemented by the Habibie-Wiranto regime.
An appeal from the moderate opposition leaders, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid, for an independent election committee was ignored.
This body of Suharto-Habibie appointees was able to conclude its phoney deliberations only because of the presence of 30,000 troops mobilised to prevent the parliament building from being occupied by more than 500,000 students, urban poor and workers.
Without the thousands of troops ringing the building, with their tear gas, water cannons, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, the MPR would have been aborted and, quite possibly, the Habibie-Wiranto regime would have fallen.
The Habibie-Wiranto regime now rests only on the support of the military and its willingness to use violence against the people. The regime stands condemned and isolated. More confrontations will follow.
Students united
More than 150,000 students mobilised on November 12 and 13. These mobilisations also drew hundreds of thousands of workers and urban poor. Indonesian state radio reported that 1 million people mobilised on November 12. A similar number mobilised on November 13.
The massive mobilisations resulted from a new level of unity achieved by the student movement in Jakarta.
At the end of October, a new alliance called AKRAB was formed. AKRAB brought together all the major student activist groups, and the organised worker, urban poor and activist groups that support the demand for a complete abolition of the military's role in politics and which reject the legitimacy of the MPR.
AKRAB organised a demonstration of about 20,000 people in the first week of November. The success of this mobilisation strengthened the cooperation between these groups and ensured that the protests during the MPR session would be well planned and coordinated.
Assembly points were selected in the eastern, western, southern and northern parts of Jakarta and march routes into the city centre to the parliamentary buildings chosen. There was agreement on the major demands, such as an end to any role for the military in politics, rejection of the MPR and the formation of a transitional government to organise free elections.
There was a consensus that the students should call on the other sections the Jakarta population to join the mobilisations.
This healed the divisions that had previously existed between those who supported a student alliance with the non-student masses and those opposed it. In the May mobilisations, a majority of the FORKOT mobilising committee had voted against involving non-students.
Students moved through workers' neighbourhoods and encouraged people to join the demonstrations. Residents along the routes offered drinks, food and money donations.
Workers, poor join in
In the east of the city, students from the universities in the area, the PRD, KOBAR, KOMRAD, KPM and FAMRED (see box for details of these groups) mobilised their forces. By the late afternoon of November 12, activists estimate that between 500,000 and 1 million people were moving along the streets.
Large numbers also joined in the eastern mobilisations, under the coordination of FORKOT.
Marshals were assigned along the route to protect shops owned by Indonesian-Chinese, as well as banks. One lane was kept open so traffic could pass. During the huge mobilisations, there was almost no damage to property, driving home the lesson that, with a clear political direction given to mass mobilisations, riots can be avoided.
On November 11, apparently without agreement from the police, the army sent several thousand paid thugs, armed with sharpened bamboo sticks, to help defend the parliament.
The students fought back. The Jakarta urban poor poured out of their neighbourhoods, some armed with air rifles and other weapons, to defend the students. The gangs of thugs quickly retreated and were ordered back to their villages.
The use of thugs was widely criticised. General Wiranto defended the deployment: "Why should anybody criticise people who just want to make things safe?". The police distanced themselves from the gangs.
Rumours spread that the paramilitary groups of the rightist Muslim group FIRKAN, associated with the Star and Crescent Party, were to be mobilised against the students. According to PRD activists, this was stymied when the paramilitary group of the more moderate Nahdatul Ulama (NU), headed by oppositionist Abdurrahman Wahid, threatened to side with the students.
NU youth activists, influenced by a Muslim liberation theology, were also active in the student mobilisations, especially in FAMRED.
Pitched battle
On the evening of November 12, between 7.30 and 10pm, a pitched battle took place between about 15,000 demonstrators and the troops defending the parliament building.
The demonstrators had broken through blockades on the eastern and western approaches and made it to the gates of the MPR grounds. Charge and counter-charge took place between the students and soldiers. Scores of students were injured.
The worst military violence took place in the late afternoon and evening of November 13. Soldiers indiscriminately fired rubber-coated bullets into the crowds. Workers and urban poor had mobilised significantly and they accounted for many of the hundreds who were injured.
The masses and students fought back with rocks, projectiles and molotov cocktails.
Protests also occurred in other cities. In Solo, students occupied the local parliament. In Yogyakarta, the state radio station was occupied. Demonstrations also occurred in north Sumatra.
The solidarity between students, workers and the urban poor, combined with increased organisation and militancy, represents a real threat to the regime.
Attempts to stifle militancy
The most moderate of the student groups, FKMSJ, on November 10 and 11 virtually kidnapped moderate opposition leaders Megawati Sukarnoputri and Amien Rais so that they could meet with the NU's Abdurrahman Wahid and the "liberal" ruling party figure, Sultan Hamengkubuwono.
The FKMSJ students hoped these four leaders would demand that government power be transferred to a presidium of these leaders. Instead, they issued a mealy-mouthed statement that essentially recognised the MPR session, called on it to make sure that elections, organised by an independent body, were carried out in May and that a new government was formed within three months of the election.
The leaders called for the military's role in politics to be phased out over six years.
Disappointed by the statement, many FKMSJ students deserted the meeting and joined the street demonstrations on November 13.
On November 13, Amien Rais explicitly appealed to the students to halt the mobilisations on the grounds that "chaos" would give the military an excuse to seize power.
Faisal Reza, the newly elected chairperson of the central leadership council of the PRD, held a press conference on November 13 to reject the statement issued by Megawati, Amien Rais, Abdurrahman Wahid and Sultan Hamengkubuwono.
"The statement gives us nothing and is out of step with the people's demands", Reza said.
"Their statement legitimises the MPR, which is made up of Suharto appointees. The MPR has not ended the military's role in politics. The decree on corruption only mentions Suharto in passing. There was no firm decision to hold Suharto to account for the crimes and massacres in East Timor, Aceh, Tanjung Priok, Lampung and other areas."
Faisal Reza reiterated that the PRD would continue to organise extra-parliamentary mass action.
[Max Lane is national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor. He recently returned from a visit to Indonesia.]