Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Indonesia's Armed Forces of yesteryear returned to politics on Monday when 10 retired generals pledged their loyalty to Vice President Jusuf Kalla's bid to win the nation's top job in the July 8 presidential election.
However, a spokesman for Kalla's campaign was quick to point out that the former top soldiers, sailors and airmen would be mainly deployed in campaigning for the continued political neutrality of currently serving military personnel.
Their announcement followed a closed meeting with Kalla at his Jakarta home at which they agreed to join the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto Campaign Team, or JK-Win, a play on words linking Kalla with his vice-presidential running mate, yet another retired general, Wiranto.
The 10 include retired Navy Chief Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh, former Air Force Deputy Chief Rear Marshall Basri Sidehabi, former TNI Insp. Gen. Rear Adm. Sosialisman, former Army military Police Cmdr. Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin and former Navy spokesman Malik Yusuf.
Basri later told a news conference that more retired generals would soon follow in joining the JK-Win Campaign Team, calling themselves the Garuda Team. "Not only these 10 generals, we will also gather other high-ranking generals in a team, named the Garuda Team," Basri said.
Sondakh said they had decided to support Kalla and Wiranto because of their commitment to rejecting foreign countries' interests that represented intervention in Indonesian affairs.
However, JK-Win Campaign Team spokesman Yuddy Chrisnandy said the retired generals would be mainly be asked to work at ensuring the political neutrality of serving soldiers. "They will tell their juniors in the military to remain neutral," Yuddy said.
They also would be given roles closely watching the presidential election process around the country, filing reports if they found any military personnel actively involved in politics, he said.
"By this, we remind the campaign teams of other presidential candidates to compete fairly, by not involving active military personnel during the campaign," Yuddy said.
Meanwhile, Kalla's ex-military backers are not the only retired generals reemerging because of the election.
Retired military chief Marshall Djoko Suyanto has become the vice chairman of the campaign team for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is also a former general. The team runs several subordinate networks involving many retired generals.
Across at the campaign team for yet another rival presidential-election duo, that of former President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto, the chief operative is retired Maj. Gen. Theo Syafei while retired Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwohadipranjono is also involved.