Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – On May 21, several hours after Indonesian strongman Suharto announced in a nationally-broadcast speech that he would step down from his 33-year authoritarian rule, Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto was relieved of his command of strategic forces in Jakarta.
Jakarta was shocked. Prabowo, who is Suharto's son-in-law, was immediately sent off to run a military College in Bandung, a hill town about a three-hour drive from Jakarta. Rumors in Jakarta said that Prabowo was furious and insisted on meeting with the newly-installed President B.J. Habibie and military commander General Wiranto; Habibie was installed in a safe house for his protection.
The angry general failed to meet Habibie, or even to enter the presidential palace. But his removal has indeed shocked the entire political and military Establishment here. Military spokesmen announced Prabowo's reassignment as a "regular tour of duty," but nobody believed it.
It is widely known here that Prabowo and Wiranto are old rivals. The four-star Wiranto represented a faction that wanted to see a cleaner, more professional military. The three-star Prabowo, on the other hand, is a "traditional" Indonesian officer who never hides his fondness for and involvement in politics.
Prabowo is closely associated with a collection of Islamic organizations dedicated to a Muslim-first ideology. He helped to create a think tank for young Islamic activists, and he's given support to groups whose rhetoric revolves around an aggrieved sense of Muslim chauvinism and a deep racial hatred of Chinese-Indonesians.
Several days after the dismissal, Jakarta still buzzed with rumors that Prabowo, who used to head the elite Kopassus special forces command, was involved in provoking massive riots in mid-May that killed more than 1,200 people. Prabowo, the peristent rumors say, was also allegedly involved in the burning of many Chinese-owned buildings and mass gang rape of Chinese-Indonesian women.
But while no available evidence ties him to that violence, many friends and journalists who talked with Prabowo say they have come away stunned after listening to his anti-Chinese remarks. One British journalist tells of having a three-hour interview with Prabowo during which the general talked about an "overseas Chinese conspiracy" which is trying to bring down Indonesia's economy. Prabowo said he would like "to evict the un-nationalistic Chinese" from Indonesia, the journalist noted.
"I believe in genetics. Intelligence depends on race," Prabowo once said. Which race would Prabowo put on top? "Yellow people," he answers. "It's just like Jews in Europe or the Parsis in India. We resent the Chinese because we know they outperform us," the general said.
"The Muslims have an inferiority complex and feel like they don't even own their own country. The fact that three percent of the population owns 70 percent of the economy is the main problem of Indonesia. We have to talk about it, and I'm trying to create a dialogue about this," he said in a clear reference to the Chinese minority whose businesses control most retail business in the country.
Others charged that Prabowo only used the issue to save the notoriously corrupt Suhartos. He had allegedlly instructed his Kopassus soldiers to kidnap human rights workers and activists in an apparent bid to weaken the opposition. Human rights groups have documented 23 cases of activists kidnapped this year, nine of whom have returned with gruesome accounts of being tortured for weeks. Fourteen others are still missing.
Indeed, many Indonesians wonder. How could a well-trained officer like Prabowo commit such a disgraceful acts? "It really hurts me to know that the Kopassus had been used to kidnap and to torture our very own people," said Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar, a Wiranto colleague who used to head the elite command.
Prabowo is the scion of a blue-blooded family that the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review once called the "Kennedys of Indonesia." His father is Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, the godfather of Indonesia's technocrats and the only person to be a cabinet minister under both Sukarno and Suharto.
Prabowo's brother is tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo, who heads the widely-diversified Tirtamas group. Prabowo's brother-in-law is Sudradjat Djiwandono, the former central-bank governor. Prabowo himself is married to Suharto's middle daughter, Siti Hediati.
Even his relatives were surprised to learn of his alleged wrongdoing. His parents were reportedly "shocked" on learning that Prabowo had lied to them and is directly involved in kidnappings in which the activists were subject to electric shock torture, beaten and isolated in an underground cells.
Prabowo himself, however, remained calm and even gave a five-hour interview to American journalist Margaret Scott before being questioned by a military council in early August. "They put me down in the gutter," Prabowo reportedly said.
Public pressures and the fall of Suharto have prompted the military to set up a military council to question Prabowo and two other Kopassus officers. The proceedings are closed to the public. But it is very likely that the three will end up in a military tribunal. "They must be held responsible for their attitude and action which obviously violated the officer's code of honor and damaged the image of the armed forces," General Wiranto said.
Western military sources said Wiranto decided to drag Prabowo before the council to boost the military's credibility, preserve his own position and solidify his support. "It is not clear whether Prabowo is the Antichrist who orchestrated everything. There may be a tendency to use the council by senior figures to offload their own sins on him," a foreign military attachi said.
Another general said that Prabowo was not really prepared to run such a difficult command, having risen quickly through the ranks while Suharto was in power. He always became the first among his classmates to reach higher position allegedlly because of his father-in-law., and the youngest general in Indonesian history.
Among the army elite circle, Prabowo is simply defined as a "sick person." Top soldiers say he has a "split personality" and never really tested his own abilitis. But he always got what he wanted, they say, most probably because of his father-in-law. Ironically, now that Suharto is gone, Prabowo has just had his first opportunity to show who he really is. Perhaps, it is too late.