Gede Suardana, Denpasar – The commander of the Udayana territorial military command, Major General Supiadin AS, has accused the United Opposition Front (BOB) who have been rejected militarism at demonstrations of being communists. He also believes they want to sow discord within the TNI (armed forces).
Supiadin made the statement to journalists after attending an event overseeing the transfer of the post of head of the Denpasar State Court at the offices of the governor of Bali on Jalan Basuki Rahmat in Denpasar on October 6.
“Seizing the assets of the generals and giving them to non-commissioned officers and ordinary soldiers, that’s a paradigm of the communist movement. That’s how they are [trying to] create divisions within the TNI. This is a communist movement, isn’t that the PKI [Indonesian Communist Party], he said.
According to Supiadin, the activists from BOB who demonstrated recently in Denpasar are the same as the groups who held actions in Yogyakarta and Surabaya in Java. The demonstrators in Yogyakarta were even attacked by a group called the Indonesian anti-Communist Forum.
“They demonstrated carrying flags with the hammer and sickle. I saw them making all kinds of criticisms as if they know all about the TNI”, said Supiadin without explaining who he mean by “them”. But he conceded that the demonstrators in Denpasar did not carry flags with the hammer and sickle.
Supiadin declared that the movements to resurrect communism must be monitored. “We must be on guard because movements to resurrect communism do exist”, he explained.
Supiadin also took the opportunity to deny that his soldiers were involved in an attack on demonstrators during an action held by BOB on Tuesday October 5 in which they were attacked and beaten by a group of heavily build individuals.
“There’s no point just saying that the perpetrators were heavily built as if [that means] they were my subordinates. If their [identify] is clear, okay [then you can] make accusations against me. If members [of the military] are involved I will take firm action”, explained Supiadin. (gtp)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
