Hariman
Siregar,
chairman of the Students Council
of the University of Indonesia.
And so development activities and the government itself have become something
alien to the people. And, more than that, within the people's hearts,
development has come to mean expulsion from their land, forced sales
of their rice to the government (at artificially low prices) and an increasingly
difficult life in the villages. But, on the other hand, for those ciose
to power. development has provided the opportunity to store up riches
and satisfy their lust for all kinds of luxury goods. This group is willing
to use any means and any weapon to maintain the present situation. So
the rakiar (people) will always be kept just an object of suffering forced
to be silent and without power. And for us. the young generation, this
is a dangerous threat to the future. Because, by forbidding all activities
that smell of making an issue of social development. it might
make make us Citizens insensitive to the situation about us.
(Address
to a student rally in 1973.)
Ibrahim Zakir,student leader
In the
second five year plan the government went for economic self-sufficiency
in rice but we now import 2.6 millions tonnes, one-third of all rice
exported in the world. I think this makes us the largest rice importer
in the world.
During
his trial in 1979. Ibrahim was referring to 1978 rice Imports.
Lieut-General
Ali Sadikin, former governor of Jakarta.
While
everything seems to have been tried. progress towards a just and
prosperous
society’ seems very dismal... It is a pity that
it (the state ideology - Panca Sila) is more being talked
about instead of being implemented. . . If I have to voice criticism
II name
the
undemocratic way of arriving at decisions as the main counter-productive
force against efforts to substantiate the ideals of independence. That
brings us to the appreciation that the alternatixe to today’s
systems is not simply “back to the old days” (Sukamo’s),
but rather to the democratisation of the decision-making process...
In
an address to heads of diplomatic missions in Jakarta in
September 1980. The dean of the diplomatic corps was later asked by
the government to invite Ali Sadikin to speak again.
Syahrir,
an economist at the University of Indonesia
Since
I took my first step into the precincts of the university and even
now — I
continue to side with moral force. But the evil and tyranny I witness
around me attacks and burns and destroys the
dreams of my student days. And, yes, more than that, the facts tell
me a different truth: moral force has failed to touch the hearts of
those in power. . . It is a great pity that now, and maybe for a long
time to come, those without power will not be able to talk about the
problems of their society.
April
1975, during his trial on charges of subversion. On June 13, 1975,
Syahrir was sentenced to 6 1/2 years.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, author
Wherever
they burn books, they will eventually also be burning humans.
Pramoedva,
1981 quoting Heinrich Hejuc in his own work Pramoedya Ananta Toer:
Mens
en Schrijver. Pramoedya’s comment, was made when
he was questioned on the Indonesian government’s order that all
copies of his novels This
World of Mankind and Child of All Nations should be destroyed.
Eye-witness
account from East Timor in 1981
Indonesian
soldiers took hold of the legs of small children and threw them around
in the air
a number of times and smashed their heads
against a rock. There was a woman who asked that one of the children
be given to her after the mother had been killed. At that time, a soldier
permitted the woman to take the small child, but a few minutes later
he grabbed the child and killed him...
From evidence
to an Australian Senate inquiry this year into an Indonesian search and
destroy operation in East Timor in 1981.
T. Mulya Lubis, leader of the Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta
In principle, the implementation of the death sentence is a step backwards
in our efforts to uphold law and basic human rights.
In
a cable to President Suharto appealing to him to spare the lives
of prisoners condemned to death for political activities.
Nicolaas Jouwe,
West Irianese living in exile in Holland and
a member of the OPM
(Free Papua Movement)
In
the 20 years that lie behind us. the Indonesian army of occupation
has
killed
more than 200,000 Melanesian men. women and children. Vafuabic
possessions belonging to the Melanesian people.. have been confiscated
by the Indonesian military and transferred to the possession of Indonesian
immigrants... We are born fighters. This is our country and we are
fighting for it now. Now and tomorrow. Our fight will never end till
we win.’
From an
article in the Times of Papua New Guinea.
Adnan
Buyung Nasution was a Suhartoappointed member of parliament until
he was sacked because be began to campaign for restoration of
constitutional government
When
I was released from prison in 1976 I went to see Sudomo. The chief
of Kopkamtib (security command) and asked him to get rid of all the
people who used to interrogate, torture and beat those prisoners
because in my eyes they are not human beings. They are like animals,
they have
no conscience.
From
an interview, 1982, with Carmel Budiardjo of Tapol, the British Campaign
for the defence of Political Prisoners and Human Rights in Indonesia.
Buyung, a lawyer, is now Indonesia's best known human rights worker.
Intellectuals
and men of the arts
A.
B. Nasution, lawyer; Rendra, poet and playwright
Ikranagara, playwright; Mochtar
Lubis, Indonesia’s
best known journalist; Mely G. Tan, sociologist:
Sjuman Djaya, film director; Taufik
Abdullab, historian; Satyagraha
Hoerip, cultural affairs editor of the daily Sinar
Harapan newspaper;
H.J.C. Princen, chairman of the Institute for the Defence of
Human Rights; Abrul Rabman Saleh, lawyer; Ismail
Suny, professor
of law; Thee Klan Wie, economist: Dawam
Raharjo, of Prisma, a
social science monthly:
We.
intellectuals and men of the arts of Indonesia, having observed
the latest
situation in our country, such as arrests, detentions
and persecutions of’ the student leaders, the banning of
the newspapers Kompas, Sinar Harapan, Merdeka, Pelita, The
Indonesian Times, Sinar Pagi, and Pos Sore,
do hereby issue the following statement:
1.
That according to the 1945 Constitution. this
country is a state based on the rule of law and not a state
based on power. Therefore determination of truth is not solely
the
monopoly of the authorities in power.
2.
We believe that the freezing of the students’ Councils...
is wrong...
3.
We believe that the arrests, detentions and persecutions against
some of the student leaders, simply because they
have a difference
of opinion with the authorities and expressed it in the
fashion of the young, in an unwise and uneducative action:
it has
given rise to uneasiness, fear and a feeling of being in
the dark
on what is prevailing in the state and society in which
we live.
From
a Statement of intellectuals and Men of the Arts of Indonesia'
released on January 24, 1978. Taufik Abdullah
lost his position
as head of the National Institute for Economic and Cultural
Research for signing the statement. Rendra and Suny
were later arrested
Moehtar Lubis's newspaper Indonesia Raya was closed
down.
Mely Tan and Thee Kian Wie who held positions in the
same institute as Taufik Abdullah, were demoted. |
Dweller
in the wind
Indonesians hang on every word that spills from Rendra's Ups. Willibordus
Surendra Rendra, poet, playwright, producer, actor, sees himself as
a 'dweller in the
wind', guardian of the 'spirit in society'; he is in seach of 'justice in social
balance in the universe'.
For
years he has been harassed by Indonesian authorities. His
works are baniwd. In 1978 he was jailed without trial after
a spectacular
poetry-reading in Jakarta. In 1980 his government would not allow him to
visit Australia.
These
are extracts from some of his poems:
From
CIGARS, 1977
We must stop buying the analysis of the foreigners
Texts may only give method
But we ourselves must analyse our condition.
We must go out into the streets. Into the villages.
Take note of all the symptoms,
And
consciously live
the problems that are real.
From A BEER BOTTLE; 1977
The metropolitan cities have not grown from industry,
But have grown out of the need by foreign
industrial states for markets and sources
of natural resources.
Here, metropolitan cities are the infrastructure for accumulation,
By Europe, Japan, China, Amenca, Australia and other industrial
states...
Must all countries that wish to advance become industnal Countries?
In
the land of our own ancestors, Villagers’ eyes, bewildered,
chase dreams,
And come enslaving themselves to Jakarta. Jakartans’ eyes
bewildered, chase
dreams,
And enslave themselves to Japan, Europe or America.
From SPIES, 1978
‘How can lt’e possibly know;
If the papers are pressured by the censors,
And free forums have been contralled?
The
papers are die extensions of our eyes. Now they’re
repliwed by official eves. We no longer see a varied reality
We’re only given a picture of a ,model reality.
Which has been tailored by official tailors.
The eves of the people have been extracted.
The people grope amongst the rumours and plots.
The government’s eves
The gol’ernment’s eves wear black sun-glasses.
Alienated behind tables of authority.
The gol’ernlnent’s true eves have been replaced
with spies…
Everyone is angry.
The people are angry, the government is angry
All are angry as they have no eyes.
All eves have been sabotaged.
Only spying eves are free to circulate.
From POOR PEOPLE, 1978
Do not say this country is rich, Because poor people increase
in numbers in towns and villages.
Do not say you yourself are rich. When your neighbour eats
the corpse of his cat.
The symbol of this country should be clogs and calico.
And it should be proposed.
That when meeting the president there’s no need to
wear a tie like a Dutch man.
And soldiers in the street must be given advice:
Don’t feel so free to beat up students.
Poor people in the streets...
Their numbers cannot mystically be made zero.
They will become questions
Which will cut off your ideology. Their yellow teeth
Will snarl in the face of your religion. Syphilis and TB bacteria
from the dark lanes
Will ride in the curtains of the presidential residence
And in the programmes of the
arts centres
|
new
internationalist 116
