Gibran Maulana Ibrahim, Jakarta – Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo has spoken out about hundreds of books on communism that were seized last year in Kediri, East Java. According to Prasetyo, more raids need to be carried out if indeed these books contain communist teachings.

“Raids are perhaps needed if indeed the books clearly have content on communism and the PKI [the banned Indonesian Communist Party] and they should be seized wherever the books are stored or kept”, said Prasetyo during a meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission III at the parliamentary complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Wednesday January 23.

Prasetyo said the TNI (Indonesian military) has already handed over the books that smack of communism which it seized in Kediri to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO). The confiscated books will be studied by a clearing house team.

“The TNI has handed them over to the AGO and the AGO will take them to a clearing house. We will conduct a comprehensive and thorough study and examination of the contents of the books”, he said.

“The alibi being given by the bookshops is that the books are already circulating all over the place, why is it that only my books are being seized. That’s what they’ve been saying and we will study and look into this”, said Prasetyo.

As has been reported, on Tuesday December 25 last year around 160 books of various titles which allegedly contained communist ideas were seized from a number of bookshops in Pare, Kediri regency.

According to government officials, the bookshops are owned by a resident of the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya who is currently in Jambi, Central Java.

One of the bookshop employees said that the bookshop owner got the books about a week earlier from a book fare in Jakarta. (gbr/fdn)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Jaksa Agung: Perlu Razia Buku Berkonten PKI”.]

Source: https://news.detik.com/berita/4397259/jaksa-agung-perlu-razia-buku-berkonten-pki