Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Indonesian military's most outspoken reformer, Major-General Agus Wirahadikusumah, has been appointed to head his country's main combat force in a further blow to his arch rival, General Wiranto.
The appointment opens the way for the President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, to reform the widely discredited armed forces, bringing them firmly under civilian control.
Analysts said a reshuffle of 74 military positions announced yesterday is the most important in decades to ease the armed forces out of politics and end its participation in business.
General Wirahadikusumah is among a group of reformers cultivated by the Australian Defence Department since early 1989. He was among a group of three generals brought to Canberra for a series of seminars last February. The others were Lieutenant-General Bambang Yudhoyono, now the Minister for Mines and Energy, and Lieutenant-General Agus Wijaya, who remains a central army figure at the heart of Indonesia's defence headquarters.
The Australian military will be looking to the reformists to put the armed forces back in respectable professional shape so both militaries can resume a full working relationship.
But General Wirahadikusumah's appointment is likely to reignite fears that some elements of the armed forces loyal to General Wiranto, possibly bankrolled by businesspeople linked to the former Soeharto regime, will react by fomenting public unrest.
The reshuffle follows a pledge by the armed forces commander, Admiral Widodo, to a committee of parliament late last week that the military planned to relinquish 38 unelected seats it holds in the 500-member parliament at the next elections.
Admiral Widodo promised the armed forces would remain neutral in the elections scheduled for 2004. The move also follows an announcement by the Defence Minister, Mr Juwono Sudarsono, that he plans to drastically reduce the army's Kopassus special forces, blamed for systematic human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh and other parts of Indonesia.
General Wirahadikusumah was engaged in a rare public feud with General Wiranto before the former armed forces chief was suspended as Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security affairs.
A furious General Wiranto accused General Wirahadikusumah of being disloyal for backing Mr Wahid's decision to suspend him pending an attorney-general's investigation into the military's role in East Timor atrocities.
General Wirahadikusumah, 49, was sent from military headquarters in Jakarta to the South Sulawesi military command last year after he repeatedly criticised the armed forces for abuses of power, including their involvement in protection rackets and smuggling.
"The military is acting as a parasite," he was recently quoted as saying. "Who backs and supports the discotheques, brothels and narcotic rings, if not the military and police? Riots have happened everywhere – even in Jakarta ... Is our territorial supervision so great? It's rotten. For two years now the Indonesian people have been restless. Everybody has been gripped by fear, everyone has been afraid. Don't lie to the people anymore."
Mr Wahid, supreme commander of the armed forces, supports General Wirahadikusumah's belief that the military needs a major overhaul in the wake of 32 years of rule by Soeharto, now himself under investigation for corruption. Under his regime, the military reaped billions of dollars from businesses to villages, which it used to supplement defence budgets. Much of the money was siphoned off by corrupt officers and political cronies.
General Wiranto rose quickly through military ranks under Mr Soeharto and is seen as part of the old guard of officers who for the first time face questioning and possible prosecution over decades of human rights abuses.
From tomorrow, General Wirahadikusumah will take up command of Kostrad, the army's strategic command, replacing Lieutenant-General Djaja Suparman, a close ally of General Wiranto.
General Suparman warned General Wirahadikusumah in December that soldiers would get angry if high-ranking officers like General Wiranto were publicly condemned.
Announcing the reshuffle, the military spokesman, Rear Marshall Graito Usodo, denied the changes were to replace bad officers. "It's for technical reasons and the military's needs," he said.
A political analyst with the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Mr Kristiadi, said the reshuffle would clear the military's bad image and consolidate the power of reforming officers. "It seems the reshuffle has been under the president's control," he said.