Pak Wiryono at Griffith Uni

On Saturday l5th May l999 the Indonesian Ambassador, Pak Wiryono spoke to an interested gathering at Griffith Uni. Nathan Campus. There was a gathering of protestors from a Students group, who were assembled with placards. "Free East Timor now" and "No blood for oil". They chanted "Habibie is a butcher, Howard is his friend". There were also quite a few police there to keep an eye on things. A.B.C. TV reporters were present with cameras. The protestors were allowed to stand at the back of the lecture theatre on condition they did not disturb the Ambassador's address.

The group stayed quiet for about l5-20 minutes, and then started a loud chant of the above statements, which led to them being escorted out by police. Two of their members came in, sat down and listened quietly until question time, when they were able to ask the very pertinent question... "Why doesn't Habibie stop the army from arming the pro-integration Militia in East Timor?" Needless to say, the Ambassador did not actually answer this question in his reply.

The Ambassador spoke about the progress made in the last year in Indonesia, with reforms and casting away the old regime. He said this latter was the easiest part, but the challenge is in having the courage for the rebuilding process. He said Indonesia is just now beginning to learn what democracy is all about. He outlined many of the reforms which have already been made, such as reducing the powers of the President, limiting the Presidential term to only two terms, freeing of political prisoners and progress in the area of Human Rights.

A United Nations official has been assigned to Jakarta and can freely travel and communicate with people to educate them about their rights. The anti-subversion law which was often used in the past to stifle protest , has been repealed. The entire nation is working to cleanse itself of corruption, collusion and nepotism. The banking system is being reformed, revamped, investigated.. this he said, has been a very painful process.

Regarding the coming Election... he expected the announcement of the results between 20 and 26 June. Pak Wiryono explained about the profusion of political parties and the way the Consultative Assembly will be apportioned between the Members, the 38 Army members and eligible social organisations.

Then he outlined three possible outcomes from the June 7th election.

Possibility 1. General Election, outcome successful and that the nation will find itself really on the road to Democracy, and stability.

Possibility 2. "the most ominous"... The nightmare of "Balkanisation".

Possibility 3. The result will be somewhere between these two extremes, but with the hope of future reforms.

The possibility exists that some of the populace may refuse to trust and accept the election results, in view of their past experience.

A T.V. Debate has taken place between four of the Presidential aspirants, which Pak Wiryono said was a "landmark" event in history. He continued to speak about the poverty rate, inflation, how Java is bearing the brunt of the human suffering in this time of economic contraction. Then Pak Wiryono gave an overview of the historical periods of government since the Sukarno era, and talked about the fact that in the last year Habibie had quickly implemented reforms to forstall total national collapse, but that he does not have sufficient mandate to do more. He must now "succeed himself" as President, to do more.

Professor Robert Elson followed the Ambassador and made further comment about the election and possible scenarios. He explained the legal background and conditions for the conduct of the election. One interesting thing he mentioned that there is now a law that it must be conducted on a holiday. In past times it was held on a working day, to make it easy to "monitor the voting".

ABRI members may not vote in the election. Parties must do well this time to be able to contest the next Election. This is an attempt to try to limit the large number of Parties.... 48 this time round.

The Ballot Papers will bear all the logos of the parties, but not the names of the candidates. The campaigning which commenced on the l9th May was tightly regulated and special days allotted to various parties to campaign in various locations to try to avoid violent clashes.

Apparently no definite system has yet been mapped out for the later election by the Members, of the President, which will take place in November. This is something which has not been necessary before when it was a foregone conclusion who would be president! Professor Elson said that on a recent visit to Indonesia he had been very struck by how genuinely the Indonesians want this election to succeed, to provide a moral basis for the country, and a legitimacy it has not enjoyed before in the eyes of the world.

After Professor Elson spoke, the Ambassador received questions from the audience. The Timor question was the subject of many of these questions. He stated that "Indonesia wants to get rid of the problem."

Pak Wiryono stated that Indonesia needs an understanding attitude from its neighbours... and that political criticising and lecturing is not always helpful. "We accept mutual scrutinising, but it must be done with sensitivity". He emphasised what an enormous task they have to restore the nation and that everything cannot be done at once or perfectly. He stated that he did not consider the Australian Media's reporting was always "balanced".

Regarding the bomb which was recently exploded in the basement of Istiqlal Mosque, Pak Wiryono said that not many people know that the following day a group of Muslim Youth went to guard the nearby Catholic Cathedral from damage which they feared from provocoteurs!.

Speaking about the diverse nature of Indonesia he said that Sukarno was once asked "Who are the Indonesians?" His answer was..."all the people who live in Indonesia but who do not declare themselves not Indonesians".

This was a very informative and interesting morning and all those who were there gained from it. I think we all wish Indonesia the very best outcome for their future work in reforming the nation and going into the year 2000 as a real democracy.

Report by Cynthia - cintia35@hotmail.com
Member of AIAA