What will generals do after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decided to remove military and police representatives from parliament? Simple, they can join mainstream political parties, as evidenced by the appointment of retired Lieutenant General Budi Harsono as Golkar Party's new secretary general.
Harsono, who had previously served as chairman of the Military/Police faction in the MPR, was on Monday installed as Golkar's secretary general by party chairman Akbar Tanjung, who is on trial for corruption.
The appointment comes just days after the MPR amended the constitution to terminate the military's role in the legislature after general elections in 2004. Harsono replaces the late retired Major General Tuswandi, who died on June 12.
Tanjung said the appointment of Harsono signifies Golkar's historical relationship with the military, as the party – originally known as the Joint Secretariat of Golongan Karya (Functional Group) – was founded on October 20, 1964, by an association of Army-organized anti-communist groups.
Tanjung said Golkar and the military still share the same vision: commitment to the Pancasila state ideology, 1945 constitution and the Unitary State of Indonesia, and to achieving the ideals of Indonesia's independence proclamation. "That's why I invited this figure from the military to fill the post of secretary general," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.
Tanjung said Harsono had been among the candidates for the same position in 1998, but the job ended up going to Tuswandi, who had been serving in the military's think-tank, the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas). "After Tuswandi died, I remembered Harsono, who was also nominated to the post by the party's extraordinary congress in 1998," said Tanjung.
Harsono, who served as assistant to the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) chief of sociopolitical affairs becoming involved in politics, is regarded as a strategist who plays his cards carefully.
This was seen when [he] did not vociferously oppose calls for the resignation of former dictator Suharto in May 1998.
Under Suharto's handpicked successor B.J. Habibie, Harsono was appointed to head a governmental committee that was tasked to draft rewrites of Indonesia's electoral laws. Little wonder that the committee opted to keep the military in politics.
In May 2001, Harsono denied the Indonesian military's militia proxies had committed human rights violations in East Timor in the months surrounding the territory's 1999 referendum on independence.
He claimed the militias' acts of arson and murder were merely a "provoked act of retaliation". He said their actions were in response to illegal provocation, such as pro-independence activists and the international community rigging the results of the referendum.
Harsono compared the militia violence to the US dropping atom bombs on Japan in 1945 in retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
Not surprisingly, he was strongly opposed to President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision to attend East Timor's independence proclamation in May 2002. He said the president should have sent a ministerial level official as a representative of the Indonesian government.
In April 2001, Harsono was outspoken in his opposition to then president Abdurrahman Wahid's efforts to replace the military commander, dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency. In the end he refused point-blank to obey Wahid's orders.
More recently, Harsono was strongly opposed to efforts to form a special parliamentary inquiry to investigate Tanjung's role in the embezzlement of Rp40 billion in state funds. He said there was no need for Tanjung to resign and praised the Attorney General's Office for cracking down on corruption.
Clearly Budi Harsono is the perfect man for the job of Golkar secretary general, but whether his "qualities" will benefit the development of democracy and transparency in Indonesia is another matter entirely.
Anyone who believes reports that the military is set to lose its political role has rocks in their head. Just about all of the major parties have senior generals on their executive boards, well aware that the military remains a dominant player in the Indonesian political arena.
Despite the impending termination of the Military/Police faction in parliament, the armed forces will maintain its political role through whatever means are possible.
In this so-called reform era, the generals will be glad to get out of parliament and make their political maneuvers from behind the scenes.