Ken Yunita, Jakarta – The appearance of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) paraphernalia and symbols is natural and can be understood because the Constitutional Court has already declared that former PKI members have the right to participate in the 2009 elections.

This was conveyed by former People’s Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais following a discussion titled “Singapore’s Control of State Assets” at the Nikko Hotel on Jl. MH Thamrin in Jakarta on Tuesday April 18.

“So now if they want to surface with paraphernalia such as symbols or even the hammer and sickle flag it is understandable, because a Constitutional Court’s decision represents the highest possible decision in the state of Indonesia that allows or gives the rights to [former PKI members] to vote and be elected”, explained Rais.

Earlier, the deputy head of the national police headquarters public relations division, Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam, said that the police had deployed a team to investigate the spread of paraphernalia with pictures of the hammer and sickle in the West Java city of Bogor. The intelligence team will investigate the perpetrators and the motive for the circulation of the material.

The pamphlets and material with pictures of the hammer and sickle were circulating in the Bogor area on Monday April 17. Symbols that were once used by the PKI were painted using spray paint. There were at least five such symbols painted on the road right in front of the Bogor State Palace.

On February 24, 2004, the Constitutional Court accepted a request for a review of Article 60(g) of Law Number 12/2003 on General Elections. In its decision, the panel of judges declared that Article 60(g) conflicted with the principles of human rights as regulated by the 1945 Constitution and therefore declared that the article has no binding legal force.

Article 60(g) reads “Candidate members for the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council, the Provincial House of Representatives and the Regional/City House of Representatives must fulfil the following conditions: (g) not a former member of the banned organisation the Indonesian Communist Party, including its mass organisations, or not a person that was directly or indirectly involved in the G30S PKI or other banned organisations”. (iy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]