Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia Defenders Front (FP-NKRI) will be conducting sweeps of people who support separatist movements in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta and surrounding areas. This will be done because the TNI (Indonesian military) and the police are no longer capable of dealing with the movements supporting separatism in the student city.
This was conveyed by FP-NKRI chairperson Gandung Pardiman at the Yogyakarta Regional House of Representatives on Saturday July 7. “If the TNI and police are no longer capable of dealing with it, we together with members of the FP-NKRI will conduct sweeps against those who clearly want rebellion and support separatism”, he said.
Pardiman said that the unfurling of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) flag in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the commemoration of National Family Day in Ambon, Maluku, was a slap in the face against the Indonesian state. This was compounded by the flag raising incident of the Morning Star in Papua. “We as supporters of the NKRI Defenders Front were truly hurt by the incidents in Ambon and Papua. We cannot remain silent”, threatened Pardiman.
Pardiman said that his group also regrets the use of the symbol of the Morning Star during a demonstration by Papuan students in Yogyakarta on Wednesday July 4. Although Yogyakarta residents did not react to the incident, it does not mean that they will just stay silent and take no action.
“The tolerance of Yogyakarta residents has its limits. We don’t want Yogyakarta to be turned into a place for supporters of separatist movements”, asserted the chairperson of the Golkar Party’s Yogyakarta regional leadership board. Pardiman added that as the chairperson of a political party, he associates closely with various groups and communities from different parts of Indonesia that are studying in Yogyakarta and knows that not all Maluku and Papuan people support the separatist movements.
During a meeting of FP-NKRI members on Friday night attended by several other mass organisations, it was agreed that the sweeps would not be carried out in a haphazard fashion. If there is concrete evidence of people supporting separatism the thousands of FP-NKRI in the Yogyakarta area will arrest them and hand them over to police. “We will also track down student supporters of separatism through the tertiary education campuses”, said Pardiman who has been the chairperson of FP-NKRI since 1999. (bgs/sss)
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski.]
