Surabaya — Hundreds of protesters from the Peoples
Democratic Party (PRD) and the National Liberation
Party of Unity (Papernas) almost clashed with
members of the Union for Dealing with the New Style
Communists (SP-KGB) during an action on JL. Governor
Suryo in the East Java provincial capital of
Surabaya on Monday.

The two groups, both of whom were commemorating
International Human Rights Day, faced each other off
at a distance of some 20 meters. Fully armed police
however intercepted the two groups and the PRD-
Papernas protesters halted in front of the Simpang
Hotel while the SP-KGB members stopped in front of
the State Grahadi Building.

The protesters from the PRD, Papernas, the National
Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the
Independent Workers Union (SPM), which have joined
together in the Political Committee of the Poor
(KPRM), appeared to outnumber the SP-KGB members by
more than 200 people. This was because protesters
from the East Java Workers Challenge Alliance
(ABMJT), who had initially been demonstrating at the
Surabaya Municipal District Police station and the
East Java Governor’s office on Jl. Pahlawan, also
joined the demonstration.

Members of the SP-KGB meanwhile, which is made up of
the Surabaya Anti-Communist Front (FAK), the
Lamongan Islamic Community Forum (FUI), the
Surabaya Center for Indonesian Community Studies,
the Tauhid Anti-Communist Movement (GERTAK) and the
Greater Sidoarjo Muhammadiyah Youth Association
(IRM), numbered only around 30 as several SP-KGB
members had already gone home.

The SP-KGB members it seems, who had been holding an
action since 9am local time at the Governor Suryo
Statue, “missed their targets” when they pelted a
group of demonstrators with rocks who they assumed
to be the PRD because they were wearing red
clothing. It turned out however that they were
activists from the group People Living with HIV/AIDS
(ODHA).

The PRD-Papernas demonstrators began the action by
gathering at Jl. Kombes M. Duriyat at around 10am.
They then held a long-march to the State Grahadi
Building some two kilometers away.

The protesters however were intercepted by the unit
head of the South Surabaya municipal police Iptu M.
Rasyad on Jl. Basuki Rahmat (in front of the
Tegalsari sectoral police offices), who asked them
not to hold an action in front of the Grahadi
building because the situation was “unfavorable”.

The East Java PRD-Papernas protesters who came from
Surabaya, Gresik, Mojokerto, Ngawi and Sidoarjo,
were finally “detained” for more than an hour in
front of a fast-food restaurant on Jl. Basuki
Rahmat, but then moved off again stopping at the
intersection between Jl. Basuki Rahmat and Jl.
Governor Suryo to wait for the ABMJT.

It was while the PRD-Papernas demonstrators were
“resting” that police held negotiations with the SP-
KGB leaders. The negotiations however apparently
failed resulting in PRD-Papernas and SP-KGB almost
running into each other.

Six or seven SP-KGB members were even able to slip
past the police barricade and tried to “approach”
the PRD-Papernas protesters. A number of police
intelligence officers however stepped in and
prevented them from advancing any further.

"The government has banned the PRD, so how come the
police don’t have the guts to disband [the rally].
It is because of this that we will disperse them
ourselves, because wiping out communism is a
religious command", said SP-KGB activist Imanan.

According to Imanan, Papernas represents a
“personification” of the Indonesian Communist Party
(PKI), because Papernas’s symbol, terminology,
jargon and even its statutes and rules of
association are a “photocopy” of the PKI, which has
already been banned by the government. Because of
this therefore, they say that Papernas is a new
style communist organisation.

Speaking separately, KPRM public relations officer
Yusuf DH said FAK has indeed sought to sabotage
Papernas’s activities on a number of occasions such
as during its launch in Jakarta, at the Papernas
Congress in Yogyakarta and the East Java regional
conference in Batu.

"Papernas is actually already registered [officially
with the government], but up until now there has yet
to be any firm position taken by the government
[against this harassment]. Because of this, we
believe that the government has violated [our] human
rights, because they have never respond to
Papernas’s complaints", he asserted.

Although the two actions took place opposite each
other, in the end they did not meet because both
were forced to disband by the police as they had
exeeded the mutually agreed to time limit for the
actions.

Note: KPRM-PRD East Java is a political committee of PRD who rejects the merger tactic of PRD to the islamic bourgeois party (Star Reform Party-PBR). The protest action held in Surabaya on 10^th December was a protest organised by this political committee.