Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – Different people take different paths on the road to prominence or success.
Many opt or even race to be included in highly recognized organizations in an attempt to be categorized as prominent or successful persons. This is obviously a common path that many people take.
Others, not many though, take the opposite path. While they dream of being part of such highly recognized organizations, eventually they settle themselves to the reality that has come upon them and strive to do their best in their careers and lives.
Lt. Gen.(ret) Kiki Syahnakri apparently belongs to the second category. A 1971 graduate of the National Military Academy, Kiki, as he admits in the opening part of his book "Timor Timur: The Untold Story', had a dream of being recruited as a member of the Army's elite Special Forces Command (Kopassus) upon his graduation from the academy.
Such a decision, however, did not rest with him, but rather with a group of senior officers in the Indonesian Armed Forces or ABRI (the previous name of the Indonesian Military or TNI). He had to face the reality that he would not be in Kopassus. A few days after his graduation, Kiki was handed a letter by then Military Academy governor Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, saying that he was assigned as a platoon commander in the Udayana Regional Military Command, which then oversaw the provinces of Bali, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and Timor Timur (East Timor).
Kiki was relieved to find out that he was at least assigned a combat post. He did not anticipate that his first posting to the NTT-East Timor border area of Atambua would give him the opportunity to meet some high-ranking ABRI officers, including Maj. Gen. L.B. Moerdani, then assistant for intelligence at the Defense and Security Ministry and the key person behind the military's operations to integrate East Timor with Indonesia. It was also during his assignment in Atambua that Kiki met a local woman, Kasperina Ratnaningsih, whom he eventually married.
Kiki's long on-and-off duties in East Timor (prior to its integration with Indonesia in December 1975 and after its separation from Indonesia in September 1999) eventually led him to be among the very limited number of persons in the military that had a knowledge of East Timor's socio-cultural conditions. He was the only senior Indonesian military commander fluent in Tetun, the local language of East Timor, which was an advantage for him in serving for a total of 13 years in the former Indonesian province.
The book reveals Kiki's experience in organizing and leading military operations before and during East Timor's integration with Indonesia and after its separation from the republic. The only shortcoming is that the book fails to provide a time frame for the events that unfold, which would help readers make sense of the sprawling story.
Still, readers can find previously unknown answers to some questions about what happened before and during East Timor's integration with Indonesia and during the weeks or months after its separation.
One significant event was the killing of Nicolao dos Reis Lobato, leader of the Fretilin resistance movement, at the end of 1978 by First Sgt. Johanis Maudobe, an East Timorese recruited into the Dili-based 744th Infantry Battalion. Kiki's account in the book has counters widespread speculations that an elite unit commander shot Lobato dead.
Another crucial element in the book is his verbal disputes with then Col. Prabowo Subianto in mid-1995. Kiki was at the time chief of the East Timor Military Subdistrict Command, while Prabowo was deputy commander of Kopassus. The first dispute was regarding technical details on a planned operation to quell rampant demonstrations in the former Indonesian province that year. Another was regarding the planned publication of a newspaper in East Timor, which was meant to publish the views of the Indonesian government and the military to counter negative local and foreign reports.
In other parts of the book, Kiki tells of when he witnessed then Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono argue with Sergio Vieira de Mello, special representative of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), regarding de Mello's request for ABRI protection after East Timor's separation from Indonesia.
In the book, Kiki also mentions about his "verbal wars" in the media with US ambassador Robert Gelbard (1999-2001) over overflight violations by US Marine Corps helicopters along the Indonesia-East Timor border and the death of Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes in Dili.
Apart from those high-profile events, Kiki does not discuss the arrest of Fretilin leader Xanana Gusmao in 1992, a military operation that remains obscure until this day. It is partly because Kiki was not in East Timor and was assigned at another post outside the former Indonesian province that year.
In general, the book offers many accounts that have never been disclosed before. It does contribute to filling in the gaps in the nation's military's history, particularly on the ABRI's actions in East Timor. But there are still some outstanding questions that perhaps other officers and leaders can answer.
Such accounts might be bitter for the TNI and also for the nation to swallow. But the revelation of such facts can help prevent the repetition of mistakes in the future.
[Timor Timur: The Untold Story – Kiki Syahnakri. Kompas Media Nusantara, 2013. 436 pages.]