Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – Four presidents and seven years since the fall of Suharto's authoritarian regime in Indonesia, his New Order acolytes are still cast as the dalang, the unseen master controlling the characters in Javanese shadow puppet shows. A presidential fact-finding team's investigation into the murder of Indonesia's foremost human-rights activist provides fresh fodder for conspiracy theorists. Reaction to those findings highlights the staying power of New Order remnants and the impact of the cabal, regardless of whether it exists or not.
Munir Said Thalib, a leading critic of New Order abuses, died on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam aboard Indonesia's flag carrier, Garuda, last September. He was on his way to the Netherlands to begin scholarship studies for a law degree. At age 38, Munir had distinguished himself as the nation's most forceful crusader against New Order brutality, from activists' mysterious disappearances to shootings of students to massacres in East Timor.
Those activities made Munir the target of death threats and mob rampages against his office. His opponents apparently found their mark aboard flight GA 974. Munir became violently ill on the leg of the flight between Singapore and Amsterdam and died. The autopsy in the Netherlands revealed a massive, fatal dose of arsenic in his stomach, almost certainly fed to him during the flight.
Intelligence links
The fact-finding panel headed by a police general, featuring legal experts and human-rights activists, delivered its report to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on June 23. The team's six-month investigation found evidence that officials of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN by its Indonesian acronym) were "involved in a conspiracy to murder Munir." The 100-page report was not made public, but team members revealed key findings.
The team corroborated leading suspect Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's claims of links to BIN. Pollycarpus, a Garuda pilot, rode on the Jakarta-Singapore leg of GA 974 under the pretence of a phony assignment and gave his business class seat to Munir. The presidential panel found more than 30 phone calls between Pollycarpus and BIN numbers before and after the September 7 murder. They also heard testimony about Pollycarpus' previous involvement with BIN operatives. Most damning, the team said it uncovered documents linked to intelligence officials outlining four scenarios for murdering Munir, including poisoning him aboard an aircraft.
Yudhoyono, a general under Suharto but a PhD rather than a dalang, accepted the team's report and reiterated his commitment to bring the murderers to justice. Yudhoyono's government has fried some big fish on corruption charges, including a provincial governor, but it has steered clear of military stalwarts. The team's findings, however, chart a collision course with Abdullah Makhmud Hendropriyono, a New Order army general who headed BIN at the time of Munir's murder.
Still more equal than others
Ironically, the limited fruits of reformasi give new ammunition to its enemies. Separation of power restrictions designed to prevent the return of Suharto's virtual dictatorship help his supporters remain above the law. For example, Hendropriyono refused to honor three summonses from the fact-finding commission, claiming he wasn't subject to the authority of a body created by "merely a presidential decree".
In a bit of doublespeak worthy of a George Orwell novel, Hendropriyono explained his defiance of the team's summonses: "This way, I'm showing everyone that the authorities can no longer summon anyone without good justification. The authorities should no longer scare people in this new atmosphere of democracy."
Despite Indonesia's progress along the road to reformasi, including the military renouncing its formal political role, the armed forces – the backbone of Suharto's regime – remain beyond civilian control and most loyal to their own membership, past and present. The military is linked to many unpunished crimes: the 1998 student shootings and mob violence that led to Suharto's resignation, massacres in East Timor, outbreaks of religious violence and radical Muslim militias in the Malukus and Central Sulawesi. Discussions of these events usually focus on possible New Order loyalist involvement, rather than on the devastating impact of the violence.
Jose Manuel Tesoro covered Indonesia for Asiaweek from 1997 to 2000 and wrote The Invisible Palace, examining the 1996 unsolved murder of a newspaper reporter in Yogyakarta whose articles had angered a powerful local official. Tesoro says looking for conspiracy theories may be a pointless distraction from what really matters.
"[T]he networks and habits formed during the New Order didn't go away just because Suharto stepped down. The lack of respect for human life, the arrogance that comes with feeling untouchable by the law, the knowledge that nearly anyone or anything can be bought – all this still exists in many places in the elite," Tesoro, now a student at Harvard Law School, observes. "You'll see it in the minister's son who thinks nothing of shooting a waiter for a supposed slight. Or the corrupt judge or cop who thinks bribery and extortion come with the job. None of this has to be centrally directed by Suharto or some general or whatever, but the effects are still there and still corrosive."
Arresting decay
Munir was one of the people trying to stop the corrosion that resonates throughout Indonesian society and beyond its borders. As important as solving Munir's murder is for Indonesia's fledgling freedom, it's just as important for its economy, for its Association of Southeast Asian Nations neighbors and the world at large. As the world's fourth-most populous nation located on the strategic Malacca Strait and at the borders of Asia, Indonesia has geopolitical weight along with its symbolic significance as the largest predominantly Muslim democracy. Indonesia has the potential to flourish or to spiral downward toward economic and social chaos, orchestrated or otherwise.
Rule of law is what will tip the balance. Equality under the law is still far away when a tourist carrying 4.2 kilograms of marijuana gets 20 years in jail – and prosecutors appeal the sentence as too lenient – while Tommy Suharto gets 15 years for hiring thugs to kill a judge who ruled against him in a corruption case – reduced to 10 years by the Supreme Court within days of the Munir report, and with release likely after serving less than four years. Of course, it's progress that the former president's son was convicted at all.
Particularly in civil cases, verdicts remain for sale to the highest bidder. Police, though vastly improved since their separation from the military, and prosecutors can still be induced to harass for the right price. That makes Indonesia a ridiculous place to invest for foreigners and Indonesians alike and explains a good deal about why Indonesia's economy has failed to recover from the regional crisis of 1997-98.
Persistent poverty and powerlessness are dangerous conditions for any nation. In Indonesia those circumstances are giving radical Islam growing support and disproportionate political influence. The threat is more terrorist violence in Indonesia and a terrorist breeding ground for attacks globally. To counteract that threat, Indonesia and its friends need police, military, and especially intelligence services that are trustworthy and pursuing the government's agenda. Regardless of whether BIN is proven to have been behind Munir's murder, the findings to date suggest how far it is from being a reliable partner for anyone outside its elite circle.
Rule of law was at the heart of Munir's work. It would be a fitting tribute, and perhaps his most lasting contribution, if bringing his killer(s) to justice marked a turning point for rule of law in Indonesia.
[Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, he's also a contributor to Slate and Salon.com.]