Bandar Lampung – Police have finally succeeded in preventing a potential physical clash between members of the Pancasila Youth and the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in front of the Rimbawan Hostel on Jl. Diponegoro in the South Sumatra city of Bandar Lampung.

Papernas members, who had held a long march from the Merah Enggal Square and stopped right in front of the Rimbawan Hostel, were content to give political speeches in front of the building.

Police meanwhile had mobilised four company level units from the Bandar Lampung municipal police, the Lampung district police, the Mobile Brigade, intelligence personnel and two water cannons in front of the building.

In a speech, Papernas general secretary Agus Jabo Priyono apologised because the meeting that was to have taken place inside the building would have to be held on the edge of Jl. Diponegoro. “This indicates that the state is limiting the participation of poor people [organised] under Papernas”, said Priyono on Monday September 3.

Papernas’s presidential candidate, Dita Indah Sari, said that the loss of Indonesian’s sense of nationalism at the moment is a consequence of the failure of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s economic policies.  (aji aditya junior/trijaya/fmh)

Notes:

Pancasila Youth (Pemuda Pancasila) was formed by the army in October 1959 by the then military commander General A. H. Nasution, ostensibly to uphold the state ideology of Pancasila, but under former president Suharto the organisation became an association of notorious thugs and petty criminals who carried out dirty work on behalf of the regime.

[Translated by James Balowski.]