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Anti-communist group to report organisers of discussion on PKI revival propaganda
CNN Indonesia - March 6, 2018
GEPAK chairperson Rahmat Himran said that they will report the Indonesian Youth Caucus (KMI), which organised the discussion on March 6, to police because they allegedly violated the law.
"We will report this activity [to the police] because they held the event openly, and the law states that openly communist activities are not allowed to be held in Indonesia, it was a violation", said Himran at the Grand Said Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday March 6.
GEPAK's legal attorney Jujur Purwantoro said that the organising committee had made statements during the discussion that were one sided.
The statements referred to by Purwantoro included saying that reports on the revival of communism are hoaxes or fake news and that the communist issue is being used as a commodity by political parties.
"Gerindra [Prabowo Subianto's Greater Indonesia Movement Party], the PKS [the Islamic based Justice and Prosperity Party], PAN [the National Mandate Party, also Islamic based] were cited, now, this is very one sided, and greatly damages public trust [in them]", said Purwantoro.
"Actually communism in Indonesia is banned but in fact [they] were propagandising it and were in fact one sided, it was they who were propagandising", he added.
Conversely, KMI Jakarta secretary general Andi Ullah said that the aim of the discussion was to take up various issues or reports circulating in social media about the revival of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
They had hoped that the discussion could prevent the PKI revival issue from becoming a political commodity, particularly in the lead up to regional and presidential elections.
In relation to the declaration on Stop Reviving the PKI Issue, Ullah claims he doesn't really know about it and stated that it was not part of the organising committee's agenda.
Ullah did however reveal that the declaration was indeed agreed to by the committee. "Yes (the declaration was agreed to)", said Ullah.
Ullah said that the focus of the declaration was to straighten out issues that are not necessarily true in society, particularly about the revival of the PKI. "Actually so it won't get too noisy, above all get used for political interests", he said.
So far no comment has been able to be obtained from the organising committee itself.
The discussion ended in chaos after the moderator announced that they would soon read out a declaration titled Stop Exploiting the PKI Revival Issue.
A number of people attending the discussion immediacy lodged a protest on the grounds that the declaration was not included on the agenda in the invitations that they had received. (wis)
[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was Penolak Deklarasi 'Stop Isu PKI' akan Polisikan Panitia Acara.]
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