The growing protests throughout Indonesia against the Suharto dictatorship are worrying for the imperialist powers.
Due to the failure of the IMF package, foreign investors are leaving Indonesia in droves. The May 7 Financial Review editorial called for "substantial political liberalisation" to enable the IMF reforms to work. "For who", the editorial lamented, "would put money into Indonesia now, with protests mounting on the streets, with no clear succession plan in place for a 76-year-old dictator, and with an economically wayward vice-president eyeing his chances?"
Such "concerns" ring hollow for the mass of Indonesian people, who have endured the day-to-day brutality of the Suharto regime for 33 years. Prior to the economic crisis, wasn't the Financial Review, along with the rest of the establishment press, full of praise for the economic advances Suharto had orchestrated in Indonesia?
Green Left Weekly has followed the anti-dictatorship struggle in Indonesia closely for many years. The paper is proud to give a voice to pro-democracy activists in Indonesia who, until recently, have received cursory attention in the big business media.
Green Left will continue to run extensive interviews with pro-democracy activists from the underground. And it will continue to report on the disgraceful support given by our own government to the dictatorship.
But providing up to date and accurate coverage of the anti-dictatorship struggle is not easy. Telephone calls, faxes and email between Indonesia and Australia are expensive (and difficult to maintain with activists constantly hounded by the military).
Please help keep the lines of communication open with those fighting for human rights and democracy in Indonesia by making a donation to the Green Left Weekly Fighting Fund.
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