APSN Banner

A general squeeze and Habibie succumbs

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - September 10. 1999

The men in uniform usually get their own way, David Jenkins writes from Jakarta. Indonesia's military leaders are accustomed to getting their own way. And when it looked yesterday as if President Habibie might be tempted to give the green light to the early arrival of foreign peacekeepers in East Timor the generals decided enough was enough.

After a day-long meeting with his senior commanders, the defence minister, General Wiranto, called on Dr Habibie to make it clear that the army (TNI) would not accept that outcome under any circumstances.

The TNI, he said, was to remain the sole military force in East Timor until the People's Consultative Congress (MPR) met in October-November to consider the outcome of the August 30 referendum.

This was an unmistakable flexing of military muscles, an almost off-hand reminder that Dr Habibie has no power to rein in Indonesia's runaway army. The unstated message was: "If you care to oppose us on this, other scenarios may unfold."

The next day's headline in Kompas said all that needed to be said. "The Generals Meet Habibie. General Wiranto: 'It is not true there has been a coup d'etat'."

That was true enough. But in the opinion of one senior Indonesian source: "It was a quarter coup. There was a sort of confrontation last night between Wiranto and Habibie. Wiranto said, 'Don't let foreign peacekeepers come in.' It means the military have the upper hand." Asked if there was any implicit threat from Wiranto, the source said: "Well, actually not a threat. Just a squeeze!"

The confrontation between Dr Habibie and his generals came with the arrival in Jakarta of five UN ambassadors, who were thought to be pushing for the early arrival of an international peacekeeping force.

Indonesia's military commanders, who have never accepted what they see as Dr Habibie's rash decision to approve an independence referendum in East Timor, were concerned that the president might give way.

In their view, Dr Habibie takes more notice of his inner "kitchen Cabinet", a group of Muslim intellectuals who have long argued that there is no point in hanging on to this largely Catholic problem province, than he does of his Cabinet and his defence chiefs.

They aren't even sure that he should be listening to some members of Cabinet. The Information Minister, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Yunus, who served numerous tours in East Timor, is seen as altogether too liberal these days.

In these circumstances, there is no need for the military to think, at least for the time being, about pushing Dr Habibie off stage. The TNI is able to act as it pleases in places like East Timor and can afford to wait until the MPR chooses a new president in two months' time.

No-one believes any longer that Dr Habibie will remain in office after that. He is widely seen as a lame duck, crippled by the charge that he "gave away" East Timor.

At their meeting yesterday, sources in Jakarta say, Indonesia's leading generals, admirals and air marshals talked at length about the "threat" posed by foreign forces, including what one well-connected source called "the threat from the Australian armed forces".

In the next day's papers, the air force commander was even quoted as saying "We are ready to face any intruders from Australia". This may sound bizarre. But some Indonesian officers have no trouble these days locating possible threats.

"Australia keeps talking about sending troops," said Dr Salim Said, a political scientist who has close ties with a number of prominent generals.

"Australia is saying Indonesia is not able to take care of the situation. We see pictures of Australian panzer wagons in the morning newspapers and we read that they are ready to be sent to East Timor. "Unfortunately, the domestic pressure in Australia for something to be done in East Timor spills over to Jakarta and galvanises Indonesian nationalism. And that is felt very strongly in the armed forces."

According to a source in Jakarta, one prominent Indonesian general was saying last night: "We are ready to go to war with Australia if [they send troops without our permission]."

Indonesia's army may have some reason to believe that Dr Habibie and his advisers rushed into the East Timor referendum without proper consultation with key ministers. But the army's attempt to subvert that policy has been nothing short of disastrous. No wonder Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas is such an exhausted and demoralised man.

[The following note was posted by Joyo (accompanying a different article) on the Van Zorge Report web page on September 10, 1999 - James Balowski.]

Rumor has it that Prabowo, Suharto's "disgraced" son-in-law and former "golden boy" (about whom US Sec. of Defense Cohen made glowing remarks during a visit to Jakarta in Jan. 1998), has recently slipped back into the country after staying abroad in Jordan and elsewhere since August 1998.

Prior to becoming head of the dreaded Kopassus special forces, Prabowo cut his teeth so to speak as the mastermind behind the "black ninja" death squad terror campaign in East Timor. From 1985-98, every significant Jakarta operative in East Timor from the governor down to the village level has been a member of the Prabowo network.

It is believed by some well-informed sources that Prabowo and his operatives have used the East Timor situation to re-assert their power after coming out on the losing end of Prabowo's failed power grab in May 1998 – when Kopassus gunned down students at Trisakti university and instigated massive devastation, mayhem, rapes of Chinese women, and killings as a smoke screen to seize power.

With Wiranto's so-called credibility on the line after the imposition of martial law, it is not Wiranto but Prabowo himself who can decide when the terror in Timor stops, and this is the bargaining chip Prabowo is using to re-assert his power in TNI. In other words, Prabowo has Wiranto by the balls and is using the unspeakable horrors in East Timor as his bargaining chip.

Prabowo, moreover, controls a war chest of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, much of it coming from the business empires of his wife Titiek Suharto and his brother Hashim. Recently, it was revealed that US$250 million was missing from Cement Cibinong, the crown jewel in the Titiek-Hashim empire, which may have been used to bankroll Prabowo's black operations intended to undermine Wiranto and buy significant numbers DPR and MPR members to shore up Prabowo's political base.

It is also believed that the "black ninja" terror campaign in Java last year was the first stage in Prabowo's masterplan to reassert his power and undermine Wiranto. In order to turn off that campaign, it is alleged that Wiranto made certain concessions such as not pressing to court martial Prabowo or his operatives for the Trisakti killings and abductions and torture of government critics – and not to purge members of Prabowo's extensive network from the ranks of TNI and its intelligence apparatus.

Country