SBSI under fire again

  The Indonesian Prosperous Workers Union or SBSI was holding a ten-day training course for union activists from North Sumatra, Lampung and Jakarta in Sibolangit, about 40 kms west of Medan, starting on 22 November. When police raided the venue and took all thirty-one par ticipants to the police station for questioning, they said that action was being taken because the organisers had not been granted a permit, as required under Article 510 of the Criminal Code. But subsequent developments show that the security authorities were using the incident as the pretext for a major clampdown on the union.
  Two days after the police raid the arrest of all those present, the regional military commander, Major General Sedaryanto, announced that Bakorstanasda (Regional Co-ordination Agency for Stability) of which he is the chair, had banned all activities of the union throughout the region. He clairned that the training course might well be the precursor of actions that would disrupt security, alleging that such a training course had pre ceded the mass demonstrations which occurred in Medan in April 1994. It was after these demonstrations that dozens of SBSI activists were rounded up, tried and convicted. The incident also led to the arrest, trial and conviction of Muchtar Pakpahan who chairs the union. Muchtar's threeyear sentence, raised to four years on appeal by the High Court, was subsequently quashed by the Supreme Court. The commander warned that if any 'disruptive' actions occurred in the region, those who had been scheduled to give lectures at the training course would be arrested.

  After course psrticipants had been released following many hours of questioning, Muchtsr Pakpahsn was arrested on 28 November and held for much of the day.
  Sedaryanto alleged that the training course could pose a dangerous threat to security by spreading dissatisfaction among sections of the public. He pointed to the fact that the subjects under discussion included "profit-and-loss", and the methods for organising mass actions and strikes. Most dan gerow of all, he said, was a lecture to be given by Muchtar on "the SBSI's tactics of struggle". According to the commander, the word "tactics" is applicable in only two cases, the tactics of war (which are presumably justified) and the tactics of the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, (which I are not).
  As reported elsewhere in this Bulletin, Muchtar has been named by top generals as one of fifteen people said to be Communists involved in the mythical "formless organisations" or OTB. The only "proof" of such a ludicrous accusation is that Muchtar's father is alleged to have been a member of the BTI, the peasants' union banned along with the PKI in 1965 and that he "disappeared" in 1965. If he did indeed disappear, this can only mean that he fell victim to the almy-inspired massacres that struck particularly severely in North Sumatra.
  Only days before these events in Medan, Muchtar had stated publicly that he had sought protection because of death threats he had been receiving.

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