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.]
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