Wilson led the Indonesians and East Timorese who climbed the fence of the Dutch Embassy on December 7, 1995 to protest the 1975 invasion of East Timor and call on the Jakarta regime to withdraw all military and police forces. He is also a national executive member of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles (PPBI). Wilson was captured, together with the People's Democratic Party education department head, I Gusti Astika Anom, in late August. Both Wilson and Anom spoke at the "East Timor: Its future in the Asia Pacific" conference in Sydney in June.
The following letter was smuggled out of the Public Prosecutors Prison in Jakarta, Indonesia.
To the ASIET friends, Australia
Viva Democracy!
We in the New Order jail have heard of the solidarity actions by our friends in Australia. ASIET and the Australian workers have proven that democracy is a people's sovereign practice which is universal and guarded by the world's people without state and national boundaries. The Australian government, which subordinates itself to the business class, is not capable of carrying the banner of democracy because they place profit and foreign trade above democracy and human rights. So it is not surprising that the Liberal Party government appears close to the Indonesian government, which is actively arresting democracy activists and sending then to jail.
At the end of the 20th century, we witness that democracy has become the desire of a people seeking a better life, civilised and human in an atmosphere of peace and without fear. But what is strange in our country is that the New Order tries to close its eyes to the tide of history. Democracy, which has become the political and ethical law for people in a number of countries, is neither upheld or responded to, but is cut down and locked up. They try to fight democracy with authoritarianism. It is not enough to give Javanese ideology and cultural justification, which is feudalistic and subordinates itself to a past which is obscure and dark.
Not content to regard the ideas of democracy as something which is subversive, they blow up a new ghost called the "communist danger". The struggle for democracy is communist. The commotion over the issue of communism which is propagandised by the New Order indicates one issue: The authorities no longer have the support of the people. The authorities are confused and have lost confidence in their own power. Because of panic and fear they blow up the issue of the "communist ghost" as the enemy so that the people can be manipulated and return to supporting the authorities.
But the powerful, who are blind and consider their people stupid, are clearly mistaken. The people no longer want demagogy and propaganda. They desire a change which is always denied by the authorities. People are more concerned about concrete problems: the increasing absolute poverty of the people, a government which is corrupt, increasing costs, human rights and political freedom. These are the concrete issues demanded by the Indonesian people, not empty slogans and propaganda.
The communist ghost is already thought of as a nostalgic story of the 20th century. Today issues of prosperity, democracy, human rights and peace have become the central issues for humanity. With sadness we see superficial attempts of the leaders of our country to understand the "spirit" of this changing period. From the narrow confines of our cell, isolated from the outside world, we remain convinced that democracy and the peoples' sovereignty is a historical destiny which cannot be avoided, sooner or later it will come into being. Because humanity desires it, because the world creates it and because history will definitely prove it.
The solidarity of the ASIET comrades and [Australian] workers make us feel safe in a democratic fortress which is universal and world-wide. From here in this cell, in a place in Jakarta, we feel the "democratic sun" which rises each day to warm and refresh us in jail.
Democracy cannot be jailed.
Viva Democracy! Viva Solidarity!
Jakarta, October 13, 1996
Wilson, SPRIM coordinator and PPBI national executive