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Former commanding officer says Prabowo not suitable to lead Indonesia
ABC Radio Australia - July 3, 2014
During his career, retired Lieutenant-General Agus Widjojo was the Commander of the Defence Force Staff College and Chief of Staff for Territorial Affairs. Before his retirement in 2003, he was the deputy speaker of Indonesia's National Assembly.
He believes presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has a case to answer for human rights abuses in Indonesia in 1998.
"I think he has because it's very highly likely to believe that he was involved in the various actions which were not admirable to come from a military officer," he said. Those actions included the kidnapping and alleged torture of nine student activists during the turmoil of 1998 surrounding the fall of Suharto.
A military tribunal – whose members included then-General and now president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – found Prabowo "misinterpreted" military orders. He was discharged from the army although no criminal charges were laid.
Fall from grace for ambitious Prabowo
It was a huge fall from grace for a man who thought he was destined to be the next head of the army and possibly the successor to his father-in-law President Suharto. In effect, he's been campaigning for the presidency for the past decade.
The Democratic Party of President Yudhoyono has this week endorsed Mr Subianto's campaign to take the nation's top job in October.
When he was in the military, Agus Widjojo was Mr Subianto's commanding officer more than once and he has joined other former senior military officers in publicly criticising Mr Subianto's record and his style.
Mr Widjojo says his inclination towards an authoritarian leadership style is evident in his election campaign speeches and his unwillingness to seek or accept advice. "In my opinion, he [Mr Subianto] is not a democrat, secondly he is not a manager, thirdly he is not a leader," he said.
Mr Widjojo has warned of the danger to the nation's governance if Mr Subianto, who also has a reputation for an explosive temper, wins on July 9. "Because of that ambition and of that background, sometimes he can move out from the norms of authority that he has," he said.
"It's as though that, we get the impression, he has been presenting himself as a political figure, rather than a military officer, even during that time, when he was an active duty military officer.
"We also, in the media, how his seniors tried to remind the public what he has done, during his active duty years.
"And it would be a great concern if those negative characteristics would be brought up at the national level, where the destruction can be wider in scope and more intense for the nation."
The latest opinion polls suggest the race to the Presidential Palace is too close to call, with early front-runner, Joko Widodo maintaining at best a four percentage point lead on his rival. There could be as many as 20 per cent of eligible voters still undecided.
Although voting isn't compulsory in Indonesia, the participation rate of around 70 per cent is good by international standards. Bu it has fallen since the high levels at the time of the first popular vote for President in 2010.
Associate Professor Greg Fealey, from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, says female voters appear to be put off by Mr Subianto.
"In some of his speeches he's actually shouting, for some voters this gives an impression of strength, but for women it seems to be a turn-off,' he says. "I think about 65 per cent of women were planning to vote for Jokowi in those surveys that have done a breakdown (of gender preferences)."
Much of Mr Subianto's rhetoric can be seen for what it is – bluster on the campaign trail. And both candidates have not surprisingly used nationalistic sentiment along with the usual pledges to reduce poverty and regional economic inequality.
Yet as Indonesians contemplate who will be best to lead the country into the next decade, Agus Widjojo says neither candidate is as sophisticated as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was when he took office in 2010.
He says SBY was better prepared for international diplomacy and for securing Indonesia's regional role as an evolving middle power. "Both are below the par of SBY and we have to live with that. What is encouraging is that Jokowi believes in team work and can listen."
Former Lieutenant-General Widjojo retired from the military in 2003 after being instrumental in reforming the armed forces and reducing their political role.
He is convinced former Kopassus Commander Subianto is not the right man for President. "Well, it's just logical to come to a conclusion based on the track record that we know about him, of his past," he said.
He says the inadequacy of the Indonesian military tribunal in 1998 which, he says, was designed simply to get rid of trouble-makers, means an independent inquiry is needed.
"There has been no clarification. It has all been made as the subject of only political debates and it just cannot end in political debates," he said. "I think it can only end, maybe, into some independent inquiry, leading to anything that is required, coming out from that".
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