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No room for communism: Luhut
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Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan attends a hearing at the House of Representatives. (Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
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oordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has called on people not to worry about a communist resurgence in the country because he said the government would not let the banned ideology return.
"We must overcome this issue about communism. All Golkar members must be deployed to help the government overcome this issue and we must ensure that there is no room for the growth of communism," the senior Golkar Party politician said on Sunday during the party's national leadership meeting in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
(Read also: Government will not apologize for 1965 massacre)
"We can't bury the ideology. It will still exist, but if those people try to establish a political party or aim to change the country's ideology [of Pancasila], we have to [combat] that because that violates the Constitution," Luhut said.
Despite the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) having been banned for almost 50 years, Indonesian government, law enforcement and military officials are currently experiencing another surge of communist-phobia.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) has cracked down on people selling and wearing T-shirts bearing the hammer-and-sickle symbol and religious zealots have even forced Bank Indonesia to clarify that its signature recto-verso logo on new bank notes have nothing to do with the PKI.
The official fear has grown worse because of unfounded reports about huge numbers of Chinese workers coming into the country.
Luhut said that there were definitely many Chinese workers arriving along with Chinese investment and illegal workers were unavoidable. (wit)
