By Max Lane
The massive and militant mobilisations during the official election campaign in Indonesia were a major setback to the Suharto government's image of stability.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, major shopping centres were burned down, police stations were attacked, district and sub-district heads' offices were ransacked, senior Islamic pro-government mullahs were attacked, and Golkar supporters were seized by anti-government crowds and de-robed of their yellow Golkar T-shirts.
The idea of a mass united front against the government emerged with a call for an alliance between Megawati Sukarnoputri and the United Development Party (PPP). This was followed by a leafleting campaign to popularise the idea of a broader united front supported, among others, by the underground People's Democratic Party (PRD).
The widespread political unrest during the election campaign and the PRD's push for a united mass campaign have further frightened the United States that an "orderly transition" — that is, a transition without mass involvement — to a post-Suharto era is becoming more remote.
The US State Department and senior Democrats, such as Richard Gephart and Patrick Kennedy, have strongly criticised the elections as "not giving Indonesians the chance to change their government". A majority in the US Congress was poised to prevent the sale of US jet fighters to Jakarta before Suharto suddenly pulled out from the deal, accusing Washington of interfering in Indonesian affairs.
Suharto has also lashed out at the Indonesian media, which reported the detail of the social unrest, the anti-Golkar militancy and the interventions of the PRD. With the prospect of more protests at the election fraud as well as a revival of industrial, student and farmer actions before a special sitting of the People's Consultative Assembly next March, Suharto has again moved to muzzle the media.
Last week he installed General Hartono, a retired military officer and close associate of his daughter, as the new information minister. On June 3, an assembly of high-ranking armed forces officers also decided that the so-called "anti-government" media had to be disciplined. According to the alternative media service Siar, a number of publishers have been forced to dismiss their editors.
Republika, a daily published by the usually pro-Suharto Indonesian Association of Islamic Scholars headed by minister B.J. Habibie, was forced to sack Parni Hardi, its editor. Among the Republika editor's "sins" was the publication of the first of a series of relatively sympathetic articles on jailed PRD president, Budiman Sujatmiko.
Republika also covered the election unrest and the call for a united front mass campaign against the government.
Merdeka has been forced to sack its editor, Margiono. A daily paper with a decades-long tradition of Sukarnoism, Merdeka has been the most outspoken defender of Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Media Indonesia, which also gave extensive coverage to the election campaign, has been forced to dismiss its editor, Bambang Harymurti, who used to head the New York office of Tempo magazine until it was banned in 1994.
The armed forces officers' assembly was also reported to have issued a warning to the media not to publish any further PPP criticisms of the election results.
The weekly magazine Detective and Romance, also edited by Margiono, was forced to pulp thousands of its June 5 issue which had a cover story on election fraud. The cover was headlined "Challenging the Elections" and showed a photograph of an election official holding up a ballot paper on which a voter had marked all parties, a traditional form of consciously voting informal. D&R had already advertised this issue with display ads of its cover in other media.
Further pressure on the media came when representatives of the elite commando forces, Kopassus, approached Jakarta's most prestigious daily newspaper, Kompas, and were reported to have "strongly suggested" to the publisher that the wife of their commander Titiek Prabowo, who is also the youngest daughter of Suharto, be "sold" 30% of the shares in the enterprise.
The publisher was allegedly told that he no longer need pay "tribute" to the old minister of information, who was now ousted.