Jesse Jackson Backs Indonesian Opposition

As a nascent pro-democracy movement gathers strength here, U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson on Sunday offered high-profile support for the country’s key opposition figure, who has come under increasing pressure from the Indonesian government.

Jackson, visiting Jakarta largely to publicize a campaign pressing U.S. corporations to pay higher wages to their factory workers in poor countries, met opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri in the same hotel and convention complex where foreign ministers of the seven-member Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, were holding an annual gathering.

The ASEAN meeting, which concluded Sunday, will be followed this week by broader regional meetings. The flow of foreign dignitaries to Jakarta--Secretary of State Warren Christopher is due to arrive here today--is providing some protective cover for Megawati to mount the most serious challenge to government authority seen here in three decades.

The 49-year-old Megawati is the daughter of the late President Sukarno, who helped lead Indonesia to independence in 1945. Megawati’s emergence as a political leader carries deep resonance: In 1966, her charismatic father was forced to transfer much of his power to Gen. Suharto, who is now 75 and in his sixth term as president.

Last month, in implicit recognition of Megawati’s growing influence, the government stage-managed a convention by rebel members of her Indonesian Democratic Party at which she was ousted as chairwoman.

The government maneuver has so far backfired, however, because she and her supporters have refused to turn over the party headquarters in Jakarta to the new, government-recognized leadership. Hundreds of activists are remaining in the building every night, and about 4,000 of them staged a rally Sunday at the headquarters, spilling out into a street.

Emotions in the crowd of supporters ran high. At one point, a police helicopter flew overhead and the crowd erupted in jeers.

“Megawati will be the owner of this building forever, until all of us are dead here, even if the government uses the army,” one man said. “We will fight for Megawati.”

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Huge red banners hoisted on bamboo poles in front of the party compound declared “Megawati the Symbol of the People’s Power” and denounced the rival, government-backed faction.

The political maneuvering comes in preparation for 1997 parliamentary elections and an indirect presidential election in 1998.

During an informal news conference in a hotel lobby where they were swarmed by dozens of journalists covering the ASEAN meeting, Jackson and Megawati called for better treatment of factory workers and fair elections next year.

“She wants the election to be open, free and fair,” Jackson said. “That is a reasonable request, a reasonable expectation.”

Megawati said she and Jackson had “a very warm and friendly meeting” and they have “the same shared values, although different cultures. . . . We agree on the common, shared value of democracy and improvement of labor conditions.”

H. Aziz Boeang, vice chairman of the Jakarta chapter of Megawati’s party, said he believes it now is up to Suharto to bring the growing confrontation over the party headquarters to a peaceful end.

“If a clash cannot be avoided, the problem will be a nationwide one,” Aziz said. “So the army must consider carefully. It is too risky to invade [the premises]. The only way to solve the problem is by our president, who so far is still silent. I hope and believe he will do the right thing.”

At the ASEAN meeting itself, a cautiously worded final communique Sunday reflected policies of consensus and avoidance of confrontation. In reference to one of its most sensitive topics, the communique described a complex territorial dispute in the South China Sea--involving claims of several members, plus China and Taiwan--as “a major concern.”

ASEAN is made up of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei. Laos and Cambodia are to join next year and Myanmar later.