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Among candidates for intelligence posting, no shortage of red flags
Jakarta Globe - November 6, 2014
"All of the candidates are problematic, and we strongly reject them because of that," Hendardi, the executive director of the Setara Institute, which advocates for democracy and peace, said at a press conference in Jakarta.
He was speaking in response to the naming earlier this week by chief security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno of several candidates to head up the State Intelligence Agency, or BIN.
At least two of the candidates are former Army generals: Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, a former deputy defense minister; and Sutiyoso, a former Jakarta governor and now chairman of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party, or PKPI, which is one of the parties in President Joko Widodo's coalition.
A third candidate is As'ad Ali, a deputy chief of the BIN when it was chaired by Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono – another ex-general in the president's inner circle who has been implicated, though never charged, in the murder of prominent human rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2004.
"It's impossible that As'ad, as Hendropriyono's deputy at the BIN, wasn't aware of or even complicit in the plot to kill Munir," Hendardi said.
Court testimony in the wake of Munir's murder – committed by arsenic poisoning on board a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam – placed As'ad at the heart of the plot, according to award-winning US investigative journalist Allan Nairn, who has had several run-ins with the Indonesian security forces over his coverage of its brutal occupation of East Timor.
As'ad, Nairn wrote in a blog post last month, was "implicated in the assassination by court testimony stating that he personally placed the killer close to Munir, and by statements to the police by intelligence men who worked for Hendro[priyono] and As'ad asserting that As'ad was at a meeting chaired by Hendro[priyono] where they planned the murder."
Sutiyoso, meanwhile, was involved in the military's bloody crackdown on an opposition party headquarters in Jakarta in 1996 in which five people were killed. A year later he was appointed governor of the capital, and went on to foster close ties with quasi-militant gangs such as the notorious Betawi Brotherhood Forum, or FBR, which is known to run protection rackets when not moonlighting as a rent-a-mob.
Sjafrie, for his part, has been implicated by the national rights commission in the abduction of student activists in Jakarta during anti-Suharto protests in 1998, as well as military-backed militia killings of civilians in East Timor following an independence referendum in 1999, and numerous cases of rights abuses in Aceh during the nearly three-decade insurgency there.
"Sjafrie is indeed one of the troublesome generals because of the suspicions about his role during the political transition in 1998 and 1999," Hendardi said.
A third ex-general in the running for the BIN post is Fachrul Rozi, the Army chief of staff during the unrest in 1998, widely believed to have been instigated to some degree by the military, that led to Suharto's resignation.
He was also a shadowy power broker during the heady years following the dictator's downfall, in which Indonesia cycled through five presidents in the space of seven years, and curried particular favor with Megawati Soekarnoputri, the president from 2001 to 2004 and Joko's party patron.
"Rozi was one of those generals jostling for power during that transition period, and doing so even today," Hendardi said.
Also close to Megawati and considered to have a cleaner track record on human rights, though only an outside chance of getting the nod for the BIN seat, is Tubagus Hasanuddin, a former Army general and now a senior member of Megawati and Joko's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P.
"Joko has shown he can be very political when it comes to appointing people to key posts," Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, said in Jakarta on Tuesday. "That means that Hasanuddin could very well be an alternative candidate."
Unlike with his cabinet appointments, Joko needs the approval of the House of Representatives for his BIN pick. The House has never before rejected a BIN candidate nominated by the president, but observers say that given the caliber of those now being mooted, and the fact that the legislature is controlled by the opposition, an unprecedented rejection could well be on the cards that would bode poorly for Joko's future dealings with the House.
"It would be a very poor precedent indeed for Joko's young government if his first nominee to go before the House is rejected," Fahmi Habsyi, a political analyst, said on Jakarta on Tuesday.
"That means he has to consider which of the candidates will meet the least resistance from the public. He has to check their track record on human rights and corruption. He also has to ensure a strong line of communication with the House," Fahmi said. "If he picks wrong, it's going to be a disastrous setback for his administration," he added.
Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/among-candidates-intelligence-posting-shortage-red-flags/.
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