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22 may 1998 Suharto stepped down from power. his vice president habibie is taking over to complete suharto's term. habibie promised to announced reforms in the coming days. this is not good enough .... the structures of power that have perpetuated more than 3-decades of dictatorial rule by suharto's new order government, must likewise be dismantled and replaced with a government truly elected and representative of the indonesian people. dear friends, as we salute the indonesian people today for kicking suharto out of office, we call on the indonesian democratic forces to continue with the struggle so that genuine political and social reforms are effected and freedom and democracy is achieved soon. we reiterate the call of the democratic forces in indonesia for the release of all political prisoners within indonesia and east timor including East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, Budiman Sujatmiko, Dita Sari, Wilson, Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Mochtar Pakpahan, PRD leaders Andi Arief,Mugianto, Aan Rusdianto, Nesar Patria as well as dramatist Ratna Sarumpaet. we reiterate the call of the democratic forces to put suharto and members of his cabinet to trial and justice be meted out for their crimes against theindonesian people and the east timorese people. we reaffirm also phil-seti's commitment to the east timorese people's right to self-determination and to demand the immediate withdrawal of indonesian military troops in east timor that have illegally occupied the small nationsince 1975 sowing terror and fear amongst the east timorese peoples. as we rejoice with the democratic forces in indonesia for this initial victory following the formal exit of dictator suharto, the strugglecontinues.... this is the essence of our solidarity action this morning infront of theindonesian embassy. we, in phil-seti, were joined by: bisig, masp, pahra, task force detainees of the philippines, medical action group, alliance of progressive labor, womanhealth-philippines, sanlakas, kamalayan, bukluran ng manggagawang pilipino (bmp), an asiet representative, students of ifrs, prof. francisconemenzo, jr of bisig. this time, we caught the embassy personnel by surprise. apparently, they were not expecting us anymore because, as they said to us, suharto has already stepped down from power so they do not see the reason for our presence there this morning. anyhow, we were quick to take advantage of their unpreparedness and one of us, immediately spray-painted with an x-mark the steel logo bearing the name of the indonesian embassy. this act was a reiteration that suharto's exit is only the first step... and that the present new order government, with habibie now as president remains as unacceptable and as an illegitimate and rotten as when suharto was stillformal president.... so, we proceeded to display our big placards prominently. we managed to cover the whole expanse of the embassy's big gate with our placards. anggaling! unlike past solidarity actions, this morning's affair was a bit solemn and for the most part, we let our placards to speak of our messages to the filipino people, to the indonesian people, to the media present, to theindonesian personnel of the embassy. mid-way to the program, we put up, just below the x-marked logo of the embassy, the "notice of closure" declaring the embassy closed until a new indonesian government truly representative of the people is installed. to ensure that it remains so, a long steel chain was tied around the embassypost and padlocked through the embassy gates. aluta continua! viva timor leste! ellene and alex for phil-seti |