Page 229 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

compete with Golkar. They lobbied other factions to agree on the bill so
that it would be passed as a law. The lobbying took four years until finally
the Law Number 3 of 1975 concerning Political Parties and Golkar was
passed on 15 August 1975.

The law prevented civil servants from joining the party, limited the choic-
es of party ideological principles to Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution,
and prohibited party organization below the municipal level. The law also
stipulated that there were only three election participants, namely the
United Development Party (PPP), the Indone-
sian Democratic Party (PDI), and the Functional
Groups, or Golkar.

“As was the case with Entering 1977-1978, university students began to

the student movement make their moves again. The rising political cli-
of 1974, the 1977/1978 mate in Indonesia, which began to be dynamic
even before the 1977 general election and the
movement did not have 1978 presidential election, as well as the emer-

a single organization gence of various socio-economic problems,
made students feel called upon to act. In Jakarta
as a forum for unifying there was an increase in city bus fares, in Sura-

students throughout baya there was an eviction of street vendors, and
in Bogor there was a lot of control over commu-
Indonesia.” nity land by officials.

As was the case with the student movement of
1974, the 1977/1978 movement did not have a sin-
gle organization as a forum for unifying students
throughout Indonesia. In addition to each Student Council moving to
carry out their actions, they also held meetings in order to garner cohe-
siveness, which usually produced the formulations that were demanded
by them in their actions.

Various demands were made by students in the 1977-1978 movement.
Starting from local demands, such as solving the problem of hunger, to
national demands, such as democratization in Indonesia and the holding
of a Special Session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to hold
President Soeharto accountable, which was considered to have violated
the implementation of the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila. However, the
most prominent demand in the student movement of 1977-1978 reached
its climax regarding their lawsuit against the national leadership. Stu-
dents rejected Soeharto as president for the third time.

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