Indonesia: workers' movement emerges
'THE PRESENT situation is confused. The movement for democracy has come to a standstill and is divided'.
This honest description of today's situation in Indonesia is given by student leaders in Surabaya. These are the same student leaders who took part in a movement that wrote a new chapter in world history. The fall of Suharto's regime was, without doubt, a historic achievement, with repercussions far beyond the country itself. The revolutionary masses won one battle but they have still to win the war. The old regime has been wounded but has not been smashed. It is an uncompleted revolution.
The military machine is largely intact and is regrouping its forces. A battalion of 1,000 soldiers, for example, has been reported as 'missing'. Probably this means that this particular battalion is hiding in secret and is waiting to act. An additional 12,500 soldiers were brought to the capital, Jakarta, as a response to rumours of new riots linked to Independence Day on 17 August. The army is more or less the only unit in society that is functioning on a national scale. The severe economic crisis, in combination with strikes and an upsurge in the struggle in the provinces, at the same time as the movement for democracy is paralysed and the country is in a state of disorder, has meant that a section of the military has started to think about the possibility of a coup.
Suharto's resignation was followed by a flood of demands from all the people that have suffered from his repressive regime. Oppressed nationalities demanded the right of self-determination, the rural poor occupied land and golf courses owned by Suharto and began to cultivate the land. Demonstrations outside government buildings were organised demanding subsidises and rights.
However, there is no force that is able to coordinate the struggle. The students and the prominent bourgeois politicians, who were at the head of the movement against Suharto, cannot take the struggle forward. Tiramdunga, who is running an NGO-institute that is involved in the movement for democracy, made a sober assessment of the situation when he commented, 'it can only get worse'.
Habibie and the Islamic fundamentalists are the ones who have got money and time. The election of a new assembly is set for November and a new president is going to be appointed in March. So far, 56 new parties have been formed. But all political parties have to base themselves on the 'national ideology' - Pancancila - and the regime's 'flexible' interpretation of that ideology. Sukarnoputri Megawati, daughter of the former president Sukarno and well-known bourgeois politician, was only able to hold a conference of the section of the PDI she leads after a tug-of-war struggle with the regime. The PRD, a left party, is operating in a 'grey zone' - many of the leaders are imprisoned, but the party is not illegal anymore.