INDONESIAN GENERALS ORDER DESTRUCTION OF "COMMUNIST" BOOKS
The ultrareactionary generals who seized power in Indonesia and launched one of the worst blood purges of modern times have now decided to proceed in logical fashion along the lines laid down by Hitler. A "special team on controlling Communist, Marxist- Leninist theories" announced November 2, according to Antara, the official Indonesian news agency, that a ban, effective the next day, had been placed on the keeping or possession of books, magazines or other publications which propagate "Communism" or "Marxism-Leninisn. "
All residents in Djakarta as well as printing shops, bookstores, libraries, schools, ministries and other government or private agencies are required by the decree to destroy or turn over the literature in their possession within thirty days. Any failure to comply with the order is liable to imprisonment or fine.
Reaction has always sought to ban progress by stifling new ideas through proscribing them and resorting to physical violence against those suspected of harboring them. Unfortunately for those who want to maintain the feudal view against the sweep of science and social progress, it is too late to rectify the invention of the printing press. The decree issued by the Indonesian generals will prove to be as ineffective in the long run as all the similar efforts of their kind before them.