ad info




Asiaweek
 home
 intelligence
 web features
 magazine archive
 technology
 newsmap
 customer service
 subscribe
 TIMEASIA.COM
 CNN.COM
  east asia
  southeast asia
  south asia
  central asia
  australasia
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 SHOWBIZ
 ASIA WEATHER
 ASIA TRAVEL


Web-only Exclusives
November 30, 2000

From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War
A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix

From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead
Bad news for the Philippines - and some others

From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?

Asiaweek Time Asia Now Asiaweek story

SHOW OF FORCE

Suharto's government cracks down on a prominent party leader

By Susan Berfield and Keith Loveard / Jakarta


A WOMAN WITH AN illustrious name and the courage of her convictions can go far in Asian politics. Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi, Corazon Aquino, Aung San Suu Kyi come to mind. Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's independence hero and first president, commands a lot of respect, but not much power, in Indonesian politics. She is not about to unseat President Suharto. She has never said that she seeks to govern Indonesia. Megawati does not even like to be called an opposition leader. But the Suharto regime nevertheless considers her a threat.

How much of a threat the government demonstrated last week, when it helped to expel Megawati as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and install deputy speaker of Parliament Suryadi in her place. As the party's anti-Megawati faction met June 20 in the North Sumatra town of Medan, some 5,000 of her red-shirted supporters marched in Jakarta. The police and army were waiting for them. Some in the crowd hurled stones -- Megawati later said that they were government instigators -- and the soldiers responded with crushing force. By day's end, 73 demonstrators and 50 troops were reported injured.

If Suharto intended to weaken the PDI and banish Megawati into the political wilderness, he succeeded -- but at a cost. The government's strong-arm tactics antagonized Megawati's defenders, and perhaps many other Indonesians. "We were walking along peacefully," said Ugi Sukiharjo, a 50-year-old tourism lecturer who was nursing a bloody head back at PDI headquarters. "We had no arms, nothing. Then we were stopped and faced with troops and armored cars."

And Suharto may come to regret that he turned Megawati into a dissident. No one knows how far Megawati, or Suharto, will go in their duel. The president is Asia's most resilient leader. But the woman once dismissed by the ruling elite as a housewife unsuited for the rigors of political life has shown that she has the steel to do battle.

The two had geared up for a showdown a week earlier. On June 11, Suharto told the congress of the Pancasila Youth movement in Jakarta that the country's political system did not require reform. His choice of an audience was telling: the Pancasila Youth is an organization with criminal links; its members are often used as the government's shock troops and provocateurs.

The next day, Megawati abandoned her usual caution and directly challenged Suharto. "If we wanted to, we could bring millions of people into the streets of every major city and town in the country, closing thousands of factories, offices and schools," she wrote in a statement read on her behalf June 12. Thousands, not millions, came when she called for a series of rallies in Jakarta beginning June 19.

The capital's main thoroughfare was closed off by police, who watched as some 2,000 people marched 5 km from central Momas Square to the PDI headquarters. The next day the crowd swelled to some 5,000. Police at checkpoints leading into the city turned back many other party activists, whose red shirts gave them away.

Megawati had decided not to go to the PDI congress in Medan, calling it illegal. Instead, she addressed the rally, advising her supporters to be cautious and remain calm. She insisted that the march that followed her speech was unplanned. She did not join the crowds that moved from the rally into the city center, where the clash with police took place. Afterward her lieutenants met with the military and promised that they would not take their protests onto the streets again.

But Megawati is not backing down. She says she plans a legal challenge to the government for permitting the Medan congress, and now calls herself a "competitor" against the PDI's new leaders. On June 23, thousands of her supporters braved riot police who had blocked both ends of the avenue housing the party's national headquarters to hear her speak. "We are fighting for the sovereignty of the people," she told them. "The government has used all powers and means at its disposal to try to discredit any and all pro-democracy supporters."

Armed forces commander Feisal Tanjung said that the government would not issue any permits for "rebel" branch meetings -- meaning those of Megawati's backers. But when the activists return home to their local offices, they are not likely to keep quiet. Abdurrahman Wahid, head of the influential Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama and a longtime advocate of political openness, said last week that Megawati's people "will soon take action and, if not properly handled, it could mean trouble for President Suharto."

Some interpreted the government's actions as a sign of panic. "It is a surprise that the regime went this far to settle the matter, to be seen as overtly meddling in the internal affairs of the party," Marzuki Darusman, a former Golkar MP who is now vice-chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, told Asiaweek. "The public is likely to be turned off by these sorts of tactics." The commission will probably investigate the violence in Jakarta.

The PDI is the smallest of Indonesia's three legal groups. But in the 1992 elections the party made significant gains: it won 56 seats in the Parliament, mainly at the expense of the Muslim-based United Development Party. The PDI has fashioned itself as a defender of the poor. The country's growing gap between the rich and poor makes that an attractive image. Since Megawati's election as chairwoman in 1993, many have begun to consider a vote for the PDI a protest vote.

Megawati recently had begun declaring that she wanted the party to be more independent of the ruling Golkar party -- an assertion not likely to please Suharto. A newly invigorated PDI could draw votes from Golkar in the June 1997 parliamentary elections; it might even disrupt the usually smooth presidential selection process, due in 1998, by pushing Megawati to challenge Suharto. Suryadi is less likely to attract crowds -- or Suharto's ire.

The government denied it overplayed its hand in Medan. "We helped [the congress organizers] with money," said Lt.-Gen. Syarwan Hamid, head of the military's socio-political unit, "but we did not interfere in any substantial way." The government says it merely allowed rival factions to resolve their longstanding differences. The PDI has been troubled by infighting.

But the military leaned hard on party leaders to attend the Medan meeting. Officials of the Irian Jaya branch claimed they had been ordered by local military staff to accept tickets and $3,000 cash for the trip. "We were told if we did not support the congress we would come back and become corpses," said one.

Interior Minister Yogie Suardi Memet opened and closed the congress. The armed forces chief gave the keynote address; Hamid sat through the entire three-day meeting. Back in Jakarta, Yogie said that the government recognized only one PDI, the one led by Suryadi.

Megawati may be sidelined for now. But if the government continues to brand its critics enemies of the state, warns PDI treasurer Laksamana Sukardi, "the seed of disintegration will grow. The regime has to give people more autonomy. You cannot stabilize a country by creating a climate of fear." Some of her supporters have begun to call Megawati Indonesia's Aung San Suu Kyi. Freedom from fear is a favorite topic of that famous, and famously determined, daughter.


This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek home

AsiaNow


   LATEST HEADLINES:

WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'

MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency

ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival

COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers

TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample

BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner



TIME:

COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President

THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials

CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture

PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election

WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state



ASIAWEEK:

COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global

Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short

TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes

JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness


Launch CNN's Desktop Ticker and get the latest news, delivered right on your desktop!

Today on CNN
 Search

Back to the top   © 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.

ÿ