Indone$ian Scandal
Revelations that the Democratic Party has received roughly $1 million from Indonesian businessman James Riady and the Lippo Group, a powerful Asian business conglomerate, have suddenly made U.S. policy toward Indonesia a hot campaign issue. Clinton's ties to Riady and warm relations with the brutal Suharto regime have led to the suspension of senior Democratic fundraiser John Huang and raised cries of outrage among Republicans, some of whom are calling for a formal investigation into how wealthy foreign donors have influenced U.S. policy.
Former Nixon hand turned pundit William Safire and members of the Dole campaign have alleged that money from Riady influenced Clinton to suspend a 1994 review of Indonesia's trade privileges under the U.S. General Systems of Preferences (G.S.P.) -- a review prompted by Indonesia's widespread violation of workers' rights. However, U.S. tolerance of Indonesian repression has far less to do with Riady's influence on Clinton than with corporate America's influence on Democrats and Republicans alike. Clinton upheld Indonesia's G.S.P. status in response to a lobbying campaign spearheaded not by clandestine foreign donors but by Hughes Aircraft, the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, Caterpillar, Dresser Industries, Continental Industries, Mobil and others. The Administration's close relations with the Suharto regime have met little resistance in Congress because so many members get hefty donations from those and other corporations.
For all the bluster about Riady, the real outrage is that hardly a word has been said about the massive crackdown on human rights undertaken there since pro-democracy riots shook Jakarta on July 27. A key target of that crackdown is Muchtar Pakpahan, the general chairman of the Indonesia Prosperous Workers' Union (S.B.S.I.), the country's largest independent trade union. On July 30, three days after thousands spilled into the streets of Jakarta, burning cars and government buildings in a spontaneous explosion of rage at the Suharto regime, Pakpahan was arrested. Accused by the government of masterminding the riots -- an allegation made with no evidence -- he now sits in a cell, awaiting trial for "subversion," which carries the death penalty.
For the past several years Pakpahan's S.B.S.I. has been at the forefront of the struggle to raise wages and improve living conditions in a country that produces millions of consumer goods annually for such U.S. companies as Nike, Reebok, Levi Strauss and Mattel. Many of these products are exported, tariff-free, to the United States, thanks to Indonesia's G.S.P. status.
Those clamoring about Indonesia on the campaign trail have made no mention of Pakpahan, whose arrest in itself should prompt a review of U.S. policy. On September 27, Representative Lane Evans of Illinois did send a letter urging acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to re-examine Indonesia's G.S.P. benefits in light of Pakpahan's arrest. Only four Republicans and twenty-five Democrats signed the letter.
While most of Congress has been silent, more than forty international and U.S. trade unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., have called for Pakpahan's release. Australia's powerful Maritime Union has launched rolling bans on Indonesian shipping to protest his arrest and has spoken out on behalf of other jailed Indonesian labor leaders, including Dita Indah Sari, a dynamic organizer who was arrested just before the July riots.
A test for Republicans and Democrats alike will be whether they can move beyond posturing over the Riady controversy toward principled reform. Newt Gingrich has called for the postponement of a pending sale of nine F-16s to Indonesia in light of the influence-peddling furor. But it's time to take on more than the trifles of foreign campaign donors: The money wielded by our own corporations helps keep Congress compliant -- and Muchtar Pakpahan and others in jail.
EYAL PRESS
Eyal Press writes frequently for The Nation.
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