More Exciting, Here's Yusril Ihza Mahendra's Response When Accused Of Using Hitler's Way Of Thinking

Yusril Ihza Mahendra. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The lawyer for 4 members of the Democratic Party who was dismissed and submitted a judicial review (JR) of the Democratic Party's Army to the Supreme Court, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, laughed out loud when he heard that he was called Deputy General Chairman of the Democratic Party Benny K Harman as a follower of Hitler's ideas.

When he was a student, explained Yusril, he had been an assistant to Prof. Osman Raliby teaching the Political Propaganda and Neural Warfare courses at FISIP UI. Osman gave him Adolf Hitler and Jozef Goebbels books in German such as Mein Kamf and Des Fuhrers Kamf um den Weltfrieden to study. Because Yusril was a student of philosophy, he criticized Hitler's thoughts in Mein Kamf before Osman Raliby. Osman was happy. Prof. Osman is a Masjumi figure who had studied with Goebbels when he was studying in Berlin before World War II.

Because of that, Yusril just laughed when Benny K Harman said he used a totalitarian way of thinking in testing the Democratic Party's Army. “As far as I remember Benny K Harman attended my course in Philosophy of Law and Theory of Legal Studies when he was a postgraduate student at UI. Postgraduate participants do not call themselves totalitarian Nationale Socialismus or Nazis. On campus, Yusril's philosophy of law is considered too Islamic.

“In the New Order era, the Commander of Kopkamtib, Admiral Sudomo, called me the extreme right,” recalls Yusril. The United States government also has its own stigma for Yusril. “Until now it seems to consider me a radical Islam. That's why I was never given a visa to enter the US," Yusril explained.

Because of that, he considered it a surprise, because he defended 4 Democrats who were fired, he got a new nickname as a follower of Hitler. “Two weeks ago I was nicknamed Lawyer 100 billion. Now I am called again as a Nazi follower of Hitler. It's still fortunate that I'm not called the PKI," Yusril said laughing.

Benny K Harman accused Yusril of placing the state above all or "uber alles" in Hitler's terms. Then the thinking of civil society, including the army of political parties, wants to be tested. "Whether the country is happy or unhappy" with him. Because, said Benny Harman, “the state wants to impose its will” and Yusril did it. A totalitarian state wants the people to follow whatever the state wants.

Yusril said that Benny's talk regarding the state's desire to impose its will had no intellectual foothold at all. First, according to Yusril, since 2007 until now he no longer has any state positions and he is outside the government and any state institutions. He said he was a free and independent human being. There is no interest whatsoever in me to make the regime happy or unhappy with its people. "I often criticize the policies of the government of President Jokowi. I am not part of the government,” said Yusril.

Second, Yusril said, he did not test the Democrat Party's AD/ART against the will of the authorities, but instead tested it with the law. The two main laws that serve as the test stone for the Democratic Army are Law No. 2 of 2008 concerning Political Parties and all of its amendments and Law No. 12 of 2011 concerning the Establishment of Legislation and its amendments. All of this is clearly described in JR's Application to the Supreme Court.

The two laws that were used as touchstones were actually made when the President of the Republic of Indonesia was held by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Meanwhile, in the DPR RI, there is a faction called the Democratic Party Faction of which Benny K Harman is a member and participates in discussing and approving the two laws. Were the two laws that I used as touchstones the product of the Hitler regime? "If that's what Benny K Harman meant, then the followers of Hitter's thought were President SBY and the DPR at that time including Benny K Harman in it".

“In all the philosophical, theoretical, and juridical arguments for the Application for Examination of the Democratic Army to the Supreme Court, there is not a single Hitler or Nazi literature in general related to the concept of a totalitarian state that I refer to. There is also not a single sentence that tests the Democratic Party's Army with the pleasure or displeasure of the rulers. So how can Benny K Harman conclude that I am following Hitler's mind?” asked Yusril Ihza Mahendra ending his statement.