Muladi: Mandate Withdrawal Not Revolt
Thursday, 18 January, 2007 | 15:04 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Muladi, the National Resilience Agency Governor, has said that he considers the movement of Malari notable, Hariman Siregar, supported by retired Indonesian Military (TNI) members, is only a democracy dynamic.

The government does not need to regard the movement as a revolt effort.

“In the New Order era, Suharto's regime, it would have been regarded as a revolt,” he said at his office in Jakarta yesterday (17/1).

According to Muladi, mandate withdrawal movement in the democracy era is constructive criticism as long as it is in line with the constitution.

In addition, he said, this movement's supporters are not many.

“If Hariman does carry out a movement with troops and there is a clash, then that is (a revolt,” said the former rector of Diponegoro University, Semarang.

This former Justice Minister also asked retired TNI members at the Balai Sudirman building not to overreact to this revolt accusation.

They are already civilians so it is impossible for them to be a power committing a coup, let alone influence the TNI institution.

“Many are reasonable, have thoughts and commitment, in Indonesia,” he said.

Syamsir Siregar, State Intelligence Agency Head, clarified the information that the retired TNI members were involved in a revolt.

This information was based on flyers distributed by Indemo activists during a rally at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout two days ago (16/1).

The flyers, said Syamsir, stated about the Conscience Revolution Council led by the former TNI Army Chief Gen. (retired) Tyasno Sudarto. Syamsir and the generals met in Tebet, Jakarta.

Tyasno disputed that he will commit a revolt.

The discourse was discussed in Joeang Building, Central Jakarta, before the rally at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout.

“It was only an idea. The council hasn't been made,” he said.

The idea was because they considered the government has failed to accommodate the people's mandate.

DIAN YULIASTUTI | RADEN RACHMADI | BUDI RIZA