Imron Rosyid, Solo – Dozens of members of Surakarta Islamic Community Militia (LUIS) forcibly broke up a conference being held by the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in the Central Java city of Sukoharjo on Sunday March 29. Islamic groups in Jakarta have taken similar actions against Papernas.
The LUIS members blockaded the entrance to the conference venue at the Gajah House on Jl. Yos Sudarso in the Tanjung Anom area of Sukoharjo. Members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) (sic) even frisked a police intelligence officer who they accused of being a provocateur. “We have evidence, Papernas is PKI [Indonesian Communist Party]”, said LUIS general secretary Khoirul Suparjo.
Shouting “God is great”, the LUIS members who were wearing robes and turbans arrived on motorbikes and an open pickup truck. Papernas members who believed they already had a permit to hold the event tried to hold them off from inside the building. However because the LUIS members outnumbered conference participants, some of them decided to leave the venue before the event started.
Sukoharjo Regent Bambang Riyanto, who was wearing tennis sportswear, then facilitated a dialogue between the two groups in order to prevent anarchic acts. The head of the Papernas conference organising committee, Onang Tiyoso eventually gave in and agreed to halt the event but under the condition that all FPI members must leave the location before they disbanded. “In formal terms, Papernas does in fact actually have a permit for the activity, but in order that the local situation remains favorable, I have asked Papernas to cancel the event”, said Riyanto.
Suparjo said that his organisation would continue to hunt down Papernas members that want to organise similar activities saying based on the statutes and rules of association that they have on the party, Papernas is communist. He cited the Papernas’ program of Tripanji1, the protection of prostitutes and so forth as evidence that they are identical to the PKI.
Meanwhile the chairperson of Papernas’ Central Java Regional Leadership Board, Kelik Ismunanto said he regretted the LUIS’ actions in forcibly breaking up the event. According to Ismunanto, regardless of LUIS’ perceptions of Papernas they do not have the authority to prohibit or break up their events. “Our party is registered with the Department of Justice and Human Rights, we will be participating in the 2009 general elections and we had already obtained a permit for the event from the police”, said Ismunanto while promising that they would take legal action against LUIS over the incident.
Notes:
1. Tripanji – Papernas’ Three Banners of National Unity: Abolishing the foreign debt, nationalising the mining industry and build the national industry for the welfare of the people.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
