Subject: Re: About the election
From: "Dede Oetomo" <[email-masked]>
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