The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.23           June 15, 1998 
 
 
Indonesia: Political Space Opens For Workers  

BY NAOMI CRAINE AND BOB AIKEN
BANDUNG, Indonesia - Visitors approaching the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) are greeted by a huge banner in front of the campus steps. It lists the demands of student protesters since the May 21 resignation of Indonesian president Suharto. These include the freedom to organize, rapid elections, an end to military involvement in politics, and no more corruption and nepotism. Next to the banner are several lean-to shelters, which have served as the students' posko, or base camp, for the last two months.

"The basic thing is the economy," said Retno, an ITB student, during a June 1 visit, explaining what sparked the student demonstrations that spread across Indonesia demanding Suharto's resignation, as well as the protest actions since.

"We can't earn a living any more. People can't buy food," she said. "So we had to protest. This regime has lasted too long."

Our conversation was interrupted as students crowded into the shelter to see a TV news broadcast. Some 300 workers were demonstrating outside the Ministry of Manpower in the capital city of Jakarta, a three-hour train ride northwest from here. The rally, organized by the Action Committee of Indonesian Workers (KABI), was protesting layoffs and demanding an end to military intervention in labor disputes and the repeal of antilabor laws.

Retno noted, "The regime is still there, although Suharto stepped down."

Another student, Radja, joined the discussion. "We want elections - multiparty general elections," he said, adding that they should be soon, not way down the road as the government is suggesting. "We don't know what will happen in the next few years. We have to use this moment" to push for more rights, he added.

`Peaceful reform' versus `total reform'
"Reform" and an end to "corruption, collusion, and nepotism" have become official slogans in this country. The words "peaceful reform" appear on banners adorning offices and other buildings everywhere. The government of President B.J. Habibie - an aerospace boss who was Suharto's vice president before May 21 - is taking pains to present an image of democratic change.

Habibie announced May 29 that new elections would be held "sometime next year" - a shift from his vow a week earlier to hang on to the presidency until the end of Suharto's original term in 2003. Suharto, who had controlled the Indonesian government since 1965, was forced to resign when mounting student protests, which began to draw in workers and others, convinced Washington and growing layers of the Indonesian bourgeoisie that he could no longer maintain stable rule.

In addition to promising elections at least six months down the road, Attorney General Soedjono Atmonegoro said the government will carry out an investigation into corruption under the Suharto regime, but will not specifically target the former president. Deputy Attorney General Ismudjoko argued, "What is most important is that we should always maintain national unity."

Student leaders and other opposition groups reject Habibie's long time frame as simply stalling on democratic elections. "Reformasi total" (total reform) is a popular slogan on student banners, as are calls for bringing Suharto to trial. A few calls to "Hang Suharto" are still written on the walls near universities here. While estimates vary, Suharto, his family, and his close associates acquired billions of dollars in assets during Suharto's 32-year reign.

Speaking to a gathering of 10,000 students from several cities at the Institute of Agriculture in Bogor, West Java, May 31, Amien Rais called for giving Habibie a chance to take steps to repair the economy. Rais, who is one of the main bourgeois opposition leaders, said he wanted rapid elections. Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the armed forces chief of sociopolitical affairs, said he agreed, but suggested it might take more than six months to put laws in place to hold democratic elections.

Only three parties were allowed under Suharto's "New Order" regime - the ruling Golkar party, the United Development Party, and the Indonesian Democratic Party. The latter two never ran candidates for president. The Golkar party is now starting to break up. The official trade union and women's organizations associated with it announced at the end of May they were breaking away from that party, and on June 2 a group of senior party members called for the resignation of Golkar chairman Harmoko.

Rais also called for Indonesians to "forgive" Suharto. "Even though there were so many negative sides to his administration, it's undeniable that he has done the country a great service during his 32-year rule," Rais said in answer to a student's question. He suggested that Suharo should voluntarily turn over most of his wealth to the state, to be used instead of loans from the IMF.

General Suharto came to power in 1966 after organizing a coup and a slaughter over the following months of more than 500,000 workers and farmers.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, another major bourgeois opposition politician, who had remained largely silent during the anti- Suharto protests, also called for restraint by protesters for the supposed good of the nation. "No matter how he behaved, [Suharto] was still the country's second president," she said June 1. Sukarnoputri is the daughter of Sukarno, the country's first president following independence from Dutch rule until his overthrow by Suharto.

Her words were echoed the next day by Bishop Dili Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, who is known as a critic of the government's repression of the independence struggle in East Timor, which is occupied by Indonesian troops. "I ask for respect for a man who has done the country a great service," he declared.

But many of the fighters who led the protests against Suharto are not accepting the government shuffle and are pressing for more political space. Banners condemning the Suharto regime are still hanging at Gazebu park across the street from the provincial parliament and the West Java governor's office in Bandung. They have been there since May 20, when organizers proudly say that some 300,000 workers, students, and others turned out to demand Suharto resign. That day is celebrated annually as the start of the fight for Indonesian independence from Dutch colonialism.

Military guards are permanently stationed in front of the parliament today. But according to political activists here they have been more restrained since May 21. One estimate from students here put the number of political prisoners in Indonesia at 1,000, but no one knows the exact number. Only a handful have been released to date.

Students in Bandung who are active in the National Resistance of Students of East Timor (Renatil) told the Militant that the military had killed five people in East Timor in a new massacre the previous week. One student activist, Armando, said they would be part of a demonstration in Jakarta June 11 to press for a referendum on self-determination in East Timor and for the release of East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao and other political prisoners. "Now is the right time to build opposition to the new government," he said.

Habibie declared June 1 that there would be no shift in the government's policy in East Timor.

One indication of the push for greater political space has been the investigation of the death of Second Lt. Dadang Rusmana, a cop in Bogor, near the capital. Indonesian authorities claimed the police officer was stoned to death in early May, and several students had been arrested. But an autopsy report released June 1 asserted that Dadang had in fact died of a heart attack. Faced with this discrepancy, a government official claimed three students had confessed to the killing and reenacted it for police in prison. The Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta is calling for the police to release the three students.

Economic crisis
Everyone here speaks of events in terms of before and after "the crisis" - the sharp economic drop that was triggered in July 1997 by the wave of currency devaluations in southeast Asia. In the 10 months since, the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, has plunged about 80 percent against the U.S. dollar, making imported goods extremely expensive. Soaring interest rates and a massive foreign debt that is supposed to be repaid in dollars or Japanese yen have crippled much of the banking and industry in the country, with a real wearing effect on the lives of working people.

Figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics June 1 showed an 8.5 percent drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 1998, compared to a year before. This includes a 27 percent drop in construction and an 18.6 percent decline in manufacturing. At the same time, prices rose by another 5 percent in May, bringing inflation for the first five months of the year to an annual rate of 40 percent. The official estimate today is that the Indonesian economy will shrink 10 percent this year; other economists say the drop in GDP will be double that amount.

The same day, Sempati Air, one of six domestic commercial airlines, announced it was suspending operations because of the economic crisis. All 700 workers will be laid off. This is down from the 1996 peak of employment at Sempati of 3,500 workers.

The impact on working people is clear in this city of 2 million people, the third-largest city in Indonesia. These reporters visited Majalaya, an industrial district just south of the city, June 2. Of the roughly 50,000 textile workers employed in the area before the crisis, about 40 percent have been laid off. At same time, real wages have gone down sharply.

Didih, a 28-year-old machine operator at the Makmur Abadi Family textile plant, said that before the crisis his weekly pay was around 43,000 rupiahs (about $17.50). This was based on production rates of 1,000 meters of cloth a week, at 40 rp (rupiahs) per meter. It's impossible to meet that target now because the machines are in bad repair, he said, and most workers average about 600 meters of cloth each week. Demands for a pay raise to compensate only succeeded in raising the rate to 44 rp per meter - still a big pay cut. Didih's wife Iim, who is 27, works at another textile mill, taking home less than 34,000 rupiahs each week.

Before July 1997, the rupiah traded at 2,450 to the U.S. dollar. Today the exchange rate is about 11,000 to the dollar. That means the price for imported goods, including basic necessities, has skyrocketed. Didih said a kilogram of rice that had sold for 1,000-1,500 rp now costs 1,700-2,000 rp, and the prices of other food items have increased as well. He estimated their family spends at least 7,000 rp per day for basic foods -more than half their income. Monthly expenses include 8,000 rp for electricity and a 1,000 rp fee for village security.

Their thatch-walled house is built on land owned by Didih's father, who works in the neighboring rice fields for a landlord. Other groups of workers rent rooms that go for about 40,000 rupiahs per month.

Many of the textile plants in this area have been built since 1990. Before the crisis began in mid-1997, there were spontaneous strikes over wages and working conditions in one plant or another practically every week, said Asep Haris, 29. The economic crisis has had a dampening effect, though.

"Many of the organizers have been dismissed," said Mamad, another textile worker. These include Mamad, who was fired for raising complaints about overtime pay, and Haris, who was laid off along with half the workforce at the P.T. HBS textile plant about six months ago after the boss ran out of raw materials. The laid-off workers at that plant received full pay for three months, but are now getting only half their wages from the company.

The military would regularly come to the plant to intervene in strikes, workers said. "Maybe in the post- Suharto era there will be more possibilities," said Mamad. Four workers from Majalaya were among a delegation of 10 from Bandung who participated in the June 1 protest at the Ministry of Manpower office in Jakarta.

IMF extends its deadline for austerity
Hubert Neiss, the head of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Asia office, said May 30 that the economic situation in Indonesia was worse than earlier estimates and suggested the IMF would push back the deadlines it had set for the government to impose austerity measures in exchange for a $43 billion loan package. The IMF acts for the biggest imperialist banks from the United States, Japan, and elsewhere in their attempt to stabilize their investments, extract more wealth from Indonesia, and open the door for foreign capitalists to buy up more Indonesian banks and industry. Suharto's attempt to impose one of the IMF strictures - a cut in fuel subsidies that would have raised prices 70 percent - sparked the chain of protests that led to his resignation.

While suggesting the October 1 deadline for ending subsidies could be extended, however, Neiss offered no fundamental shift in the IMF guidelines, and did not set a date for resuming payments of the promised loans. He returned to the IMF headquarters in Washington after five days in Indonesia, where he said a decision would be made.

"We need economic and political change. Why do what the IMF says? Why do the [university] rector and the government, who say they support reform, have no response to the economic conditions we face?" declared a student standing at the microphone as these reporters arrived at the Pasudan University campus in Bandung June 1. He spoke to passing students under banners opposing the Suharto regime and calling for political reform and the recovery of Suharto's wealth. After the soapboxing, a group of students gathered to watch a theater piece accusing Suharto of crimes against the Indonesian people.

Students said that of the 15,000 on this private campus, 13,000 took part in the May 20 protest at the provincial parliament, joining a march stretching almost two miles.

The role of the IMF was a topic of discussion when Militant reporters met with some of the activists in the Pasudan student press office. "We criticize the IMF policies and demand that the IMF not interfere, just deliver funds," said Dian Wiram, head of the campus press. "One day students will be against the IMF," she added, "but Indonesia is very weak today and the economic crisis is still very deep," so maybe the loans are necessary.

Other students said they thought the economy could repair itself if the corruption that marked the Suharto regime were ended. Ade Lulu of the Revolutionary Student Organization at Pasudan commented, "We realize the IMF's relationship is with Suharto, not the people."

This was also a discussion at a meeting that evening of the Bandung Student Presidium, with representatives involved in the struggle from different campuses. "We see the IMF as a new imperialism - a new intervention from a foreign country," said one student.

That meeting took place at the Bandung Economics Institute. Students there have erected a display in a courtyard near the entrance to the campus, including panels listing the companies owned by the Suharto family.

The centerpiece is a collection of photos from a demonstration they held on campus May 6 protesting the Suharto regime. Police attacked the action, which had drawn 1,500 students from several campuses, with clubs and tear gas. Two police clubs that had been used to beat a female demonstrator are part of the display. The battle had been a flashpoint in galvanizing the protest movement, as was the killing of six students by police in Jakarta May 12. Another collection of photos showed a mass march from the campus to the provincial parliament May 14.

Student protests are continuing across the country. Students in Ujungpandang, the capital of South Sulawesi, have occupied the legislative council building demanding the resignation of Gov. Z.B. Palauna. Eight hundred of these student protesters faced off with 200 students who support the provincial governor June 1, the fourth day of their occupation, according to the Jakarta Post.  
 
 
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