From: "Dede Oetomo" Subject: Re: About the election Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 15:08:19 +0700 Dear Masaki Thank you for your email. I'm sorry I didn't reply immediately. I didn't open my hotmail account for a while because it was so slow. Anyway, here I am now. (1) What kind of party is the People's Democratic Party? Every day we readsome articles of Indonesian election in Japanese newspapers, but we havenot seen the name of the party yet. Please tell me what chalactor andbackground the party has. The People's Democratic Party was a continuation of the Indonesian student movement of the 1980s. It is a democratic socialist party, and is still fairly small for now, mostly because from 1996 until the middle of last year the party was heavily repressed by the regime. (2) What kind of policy does the party have about gays and lesbians? And Iwant to know how other parties' policy about l/gs. In the founding Manifesto of the Party, among different social and cultural rights of the people it is mentioned that the Party struggles for the equal rights of gay men, lesbians and transgenders. This has been proven since 1996 in the form of Party cadres proactively approaching organizations and communities (actually, initial approaches were made already in 1994 for a collaboration between the different gay, lesbian and transgender organizations and communities and the then People's Democratic Alliance). In the past two months or so that the Party has become legal, gay and transgender activists have joined Party activities in at least two cities (Malang, East Java; Pontianak, West Kalimantan). In some other places Party cadres again have proactively approached communities and organizations. Gay men and transgenders figure in the leadership positions of some branches as well as the central committee. One gay man is a national parliamentary candidate, and another is a candidate for municipal parliament. No other political parties explicitly mention a policy or program of any kind on gay men, lesbians and transgenders. The more secular parties, such as PDI-Struggle (of Megawati Soekarnoputri), PKB (the National Awakening Party), and the incumbent Golkar have involved individual not-so-open gay men (such as Megawati's own brother, Guruh Soekarnoputra in the PDI-Struggle) as parliamentary candidates, and have included groups of transgender artists in campaigns, but that's where they stop. (3) How did you address the party to be a candidate? Wasn't there anyopposition in the party against making an openly gay candidate? I was nominated by the central leadership committee and approved by the regional/provincial committee. No, there was no opposition in the party so far, and I don't think there'll be any in future, since part of the training of cadres includes a curriculum on marginalized communities such as gays, lesbians and transgenders. (4) I want to know about the party's policy about the problem of EastTimor, Atjeh and Irian Jaya. The People's Democratic Party was fully aware since the days before it became a party of the repressive colonial situation prevailing in East Timor. The party's policy has always been for a referendum involving East Timorese both in East Timor and overseas to determine the status of the territory. On the question of Aceh and West Papua (the Party regards the term Irian Jaya as a racist term given by ultranationalists in Jakarta), the Party believes that until military operations to protect corrupt economic practices related to the exploitation of natural resources such as natural gas and marijuana in Aceh, and timber, copper, and gold in West Papua, are suspended, there will never be a possibility of a solution of any kind. That's it, Masaki. I hope you don't mind my sharing my reply with other members of MSMAP as well as other Indonesian and Asian(-related) friends and the foreign press. Your questions were really on the mark, so it helps focus my work to spread the word about the party and the construction of a new, democratic Indonesia. Regards, Dede Oetomo