December, 2000 Volume 3, Issue 3 Past Issues About dis/content Editorial Collective Contributors Contact Us Submissions Links Home   Interviews with Women Activists from Palestine and Indonesia [continued] Dhyta Caturani: People’s Democratic Party of Indonesia Manila, Philippines 12/6/99 DC: My names Dhyta Caturani. I work for People’s Democratic Party, the only left political party in Indonesia at the moment, and I work in the international department. rkt: It’s a political party? DC: Yes, we are the opposition, extraparliamentary opposition, in Indonesia. rkt: How did you become an activist? DC: In 1994, the first time I went to university, I met a lot of comrades – they had a student organization at that time – they organized students, they worked for the workers, they worked for the peasants . . . I met them, I had a lot of discussions with them, and I came to their rallies, their actions, advocating for peasants, advocating for workers, and then I decided to become a member of the PRD. rkt: Can you give us some background on the recent political developments in Indonesia, the fall of Suharto, etc.? DC: OK, brief background: Suharto took power in a military coup in 1965, during a time when the Communist Party of Indonesia was the biggest party in Indonesia. After the coup, Suharto and his military killed about two million Indonesian people, even the common supporters of peasants, of workers, he killed all of them. And since then, all of the left ideology in Indonesia was banned. During the 1980’s, around 1984, student activism began to rise again, starting as discussion forums, study circles, becoming more progressive, more radical. They began advocating for the peasants, as there were many land problems, and they formed the National Peasant Union.     So Suharto was in power for 33 years, 1965-1998, we had had a military system in Indonesia. For example, during the early 90’s, and continuing to the present day, whenever we have a demonstration or action of the students, workers or peasants, the military will handle the demonstration. They will always attack us, to disperse us – sometimes they use really brutal violence, like they shoot us. They kill students, they kidnap students and activists . . . in the end of 1997 the tension reached an incredible height. We held a very big rally, a massive rally, and it spread all over Indonesia, and the military became more brutal. Many students were killed, many people were killed during the demonstration, but we succeeded to topple Suharto. And many people think, in the international community, that, oh, Suharto’s gone, Indonesia has now become more democratic, but that’s not true. Suharto’s gone, but the system still remains, the regime still remains, even until now. Because the military system still runs Indonesia. The main problem in Indonesia is that the military has a double function – the professional function of the military is to defend our country from other countries, but the second is a special right given to the military, so that it has the biggest role in politics, in the economy, in the social life of Indonesian people. So this is the main problem, we still have the military dual function. The military always has seats in the parliament, the biggest block. Now they have 38 seats, for nothing! Other parties must work hard, get votes to get seats in parliament, but they did nothing and they got seats. rkt: 38 seats, out of how many? DC: Out of 700, but we have many political parties! This year is the first time we’ve had the multiparty system. Before, since 1965, we’ve had only three parties. One of them, the ruling party, belonged to Suharto, and there were the Muslims and the nationalists. Only three. But now, this year, we had 48 political parties. rkt: Tell me more about your party. DC: The People’s Democratic Party, PRD in Indonesian, was formed in 1994, mostly by students. We had five platforms: for workers, for peasants, for students, for alternative artists, and for the solidarity struggle for East Timor. We did a lot of actions, we did a lot of demonstrations, with thousands of workers. In June 1996, we had about 60,000 workers go out on strike in support of one of our leaders, Dhyta Sari, when she was arrested. Then on July 27, 1996, there were big riots in Indonesia, and the government scapegoated us, they said the PRD was the mastermind of the riots. So the military captured, kidnapped or arrested almost all of our members – about 13 people were imprisoned, and eight are still in jail. Our chairperson got a 13-year sentence. Many of my friends, my comrades, were captured, kidnapped and tortured, but did not have trials or go to jail. They were only abducted and tortured for two weeks, three weeks, a month. After this, the PRD was banned. They propagandized to the people that the PRD was communist, and since communism is illegal, we should ban the PRD also.     Throughout 1997, the actions of the people and the students got more massive and spread all over Indonesia again, and so in early 1998 the military once again kidnapped 14 of my comrades in the PRD, and tortured them for two months. One was found dead with eight holes in his body. Still today, three are missing.     After Suharto fell, we appealed in the courts and won, so now we are legal again. But even so, they terrorize us; for example, the national office was bombed a few months ago, and other offices have been attacked by the military and by reactionary Muslims, because they still say that we are communist. So, after we became legal again, we decided to participate in the elections, in order to reach the people throughout the media. Because if we didn’t participate in the elections, we would lose the opportunity to talk to the people on television, on the radio, in the street, so we should use this opportunity as much as we can. But they still oppress us. After the elections, on July 1, 1999, we had a rally, and the military dispersed us – they attacked us, they beat us, and they shot us. I am one of the victims: they shot me in the back, they beat me all over my head. It caused permanent damage to my brain. But I am not the only one – many of my comrades, 78 people, were shot at that demonstration. One of my comrades lost his memory; even now he’s got amnesia.     So the new government was elected, Abdurraham Wahid is now president, and people think that Indonesia now is already democratic. But I want to say, I want to make clear that Indonesia’s still the same. Foreign capital is pouring into Indonesia, and of course the corporations and the new government collaborate with the military. One example: in September 1999, we had a big mobilization protesting the martial law, the new martial law, which was declared that month. And just the same as Suharto and Habibi. And two days ago (12/4/99), our new president Wahid made a statement on Aceh (an Indonesian province with a strong separatist movement). He said that if Aceh continues to challenge the government for their independence, we will send in the military to use oppressive force. So, I want to convince all the people of Indonesia and the international community that it’s just the same, there’s been no real change in Indonesia. rkt: So, as long as the military continues to have so much power . . .  DC: Yes, it’s still the same. There is terrible poverty in Indonesia, workers get very low wages, many activists have been jailed, torture and kidnapping are common, and the country remains militarized. rkt: You mentioned foreign investment – what have been the effects of this? Is it a relatively new phenomenon in Indonesia? DC: It’s been going on a long time, since Suharto’s been in power. There’s a lot of foreign capital there. One of the biggest companies in Indonesia is an American mining company called Freeport, and Indonesia only gets one percent of their profits. In West Papua, a city in the middle of the jungle, 500 native people died of starvation last year. The foreign corporations do not hire them – they bring in their own people and take away natural resources and the profits. rkt: Are there many “free trade zones” in Indonesia? DC: Yes. And now it’s getting worse, because many of our state enterprises are being privatized. For instance, the national oil enterprise, many state universities, electricity, water. . . . It just gives more burden to the people because the prices always increase. If the price of oil increases, all other prices rise too. But Suharto’s people, military officers, they are very rich, while nearly half the Indonesian people are unemployed and many are too poor even to buy food. rkt: What about the current situation in East Timor? DC: We support the independence of East Timor, since a long time ago. So now, it is a big challenge for East Timor to rebuild their country, without interference from other countries. Because, if you look at the history of these imperialist countries, it’s very interesting how now they support East Timor, like the US, Australia, when before they always supported Indonesia. But we support their independence. Even now there is Indonesian military buildup on the border between East Timor and West Timor (West Timor belongs to Indonesia), and we say the military should be withdrawn, and Indonesia should pay reparations to rebuild East Timor. These are our demands on our government. And we also ask for an investigation of all the human rights violation in East Timor: the rapes, the killings, the torture. We want the military held responsible for what they have done, especially the high-ranking officials who always escape blame, they should be brought to international court as human rights violators. rkt: I heard Suharto might be tried in international court. Do you think it will happen? DC: I think it is really impossible, because if Suharto goes to trial, then all of his cronies need to go to trial as well, most of whom are military officers. And the military still has too much power for that, they are still protecting him. It is really impossible for us. But, that is one of our demands. Not only because of his corruption and opportunism, but because of human rights violations he has committed over these many years. rkt: How can people in other countries, specifically in the US, help the struggle of the Indonesian people? DC: I believe our struggle is your struggle, and your struggle is our struggle. So we all can learn from our experience of bringing down Suharto. It’s not just the struggle of Indonesian people, but of many people all over the world who support our struggle in Indonesia. You can push your government to stop giving aid to Indonesia, especially military aid, because the US is our biggest sponsor of military training, military weapons, military aid . . . so, that’s a kind of solidarity that you can give us. Also we can work together to fight against globalization – imperialism  – because we can see that all oppression all over the world has a capital background. So an imperialist country will collaborate with our local government to get more and more profit, and they oppress the people. So we can fight together against imperialism, against globalization. We value your support in our struggle. Previous section     Table of Contents