By K. Govindan A WAVE of repression has been unleashed by Indonesia's military and civilian authorities against those critical of President Suharto.
Tempo, Editor and DeTik, three popular news magazines with a combined circulation of more than 500,000, had their permits revoked in June - an action equivalent to a ban.
The press has always been subject to state control and censorship. There are unwritten guidelines that reports critical of the President his family and the military are taboo.
Bolder journalists have tried to take advantage of a declared policy of "openness" that tolerates some muted discussion of This shift in the late 1980s was prompted by demands from the growing middle classes for political breathing space.
Fragile
The fragility of this arrangement has been underlined by the swift response to revelations in Tempo of an arms deal made by the Suharto protégé BJ Habbie with the German government.
The demonstrations which followed were violently dispersed by police and special military units.
Meanwhile the trial of four key activists of the illegal Indonesian Labour Prosperity Union continues. They are charged with involvement in labour orprotests that took place in the industrial city of Medan in April.
There have been numerous stoppages and protests by workers to mark their solidarity with the detained activists in spite of the risks they face - ranging from dismissal to arrest and torture by the military.
The government is now threatening draconian controls on Non-Governmental Organisations.
Focus
These have become a thorn in the government's side, and a focus for dissidents who despair of Suharto's kept oppositional parties.
Through their publications, seminars and activism the NGOs have highlighted human Opposing repression: Melbourne solidarity with East Timor as part of a recent Australian Day of Action women's rights and matters of - social justice.
They have been vocal critics of the state, and, through their international contacts, have provided an important source of information elsewhere on struggles within Indonesia.
Under a draft decree an NGO will be illegal if involved in activities which threaten "public security and order" or receive "foreign assistance without prior approval of the central The decree extends this to anything which can be deemed "of a damaging nature to the state or national interests".
While small circles of activists try to develop genuinely alternative political formations the working class and rural poor continue the battle for survival.
WENCE
'NOWE Resistance / CONT due to take place on 26 November. The main aim will not be to establish a joint political organisation - a goal that must be addressed primarily by the Party of Labour and the United Social - so much as to lay the foundations for a mass movement "from below".
The future of the left movement in Russia now depends on worker and trade union activists.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.71, 3 November 1994, Page 13