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Retired generals line up to battle for both presidential candidates
Jakarta Globe - June 6, 2014
While the presence of retired Indonesian Military (TNI) generals in the Prabowo Subianto bloc came as no surprise – given his former job as a commander of the Army special forces Kopassus – the campaign team of Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo appears to have its own share of military retirees.
Enlisted in the campaign team of the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa ticket is former Army chief of staff George Toisutta and former deputy Navy chief of staff Moekhlas Sidik as deputy chairman.
More retired generals are included in the board of advisers of the team, including former TNI commander Gen. Joko Santoso, former head of State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Syamsir Siregar, as well as retired Army generals Farouk Muhammad Syechbubakar, Yunus Yosfiah and Syarwan Hamid.
The Joko-Jusuf Kalla ticket, meanwhile, has managed to recruit former BIN chief A. M. Hendropriyono, his former deputy in BIN Muchdi Purwoprandjono (acquitted of allegations of involvement in the murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2008), former Army infantry commander Luhut Panjaitan and former Navy chief of staff Tedjo Edi, and former Army chief of staff Farchrul Rozi.
Former National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar also has decided to join the Joko ticket, while his then deputy Adang Daradjatun is enlisted in the Prabowo-Hatta team's board of experts.
Aside from names in the lists made available to the media, there is no official data on the number of retired military and police officials joining or supporting the campaign teams of either of the two tickets.
Indonesian news portal tribunnews.com reported last week, citing anonymous sources, that at least 34 retired military generals have declared their support for the Prabowo-Hatta ticket, while those supporting Joko-Kalla amount to 39.
State-run news agency Antara, meanwhile, reported that 15,000 retired military and police officials in Gorontalo alone have declared their support for Prabowo.
"I support Prabowo because I know his character is exactly like it was while we were in the military academy together," retired Army official Mohtar Darise said during the declaration event in Gorontalo on Monday. "I was in the same year with him. I know his track record. There are 15,000 of us [retired military officers] in Gorontalo [who support Prabowo's bid]."
Joko's running mate, former vice president Jusuf Kalla, said last week up to 200 retired generals from four Indonesian military veteran organizations supported his ticket. "Speaking of power, I personally believe more than 200 [retired] generals from all forces [support us]," Kalla said, as quoted by jpnn.com.
Military expert Al Araf from rights group Imparsial said despite the unknown number, he believed the size of military retirees' support for both tickets were about equal in size. "All the retired generals have their own followers," Al Araf said on Wednesday.
Military acquaintances
Meanwhile, former diplomat and military observer Salim Said said while Prabowo garnered most of his military support from his former comrades in the Army, Joko has probably got his own share of military retirees through the connections of Kalla and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) who have got their military acquaintances during their terms in Indonesia's vice president and president offices, respectively.
Former TNI commander Wiranto, the chairman of People's Conscience Party (Hanura), a member of the PDI-P-led coalition supporting the Joko-Kalla ticket, is also believed to have contributed a lot to military retirees' support for the team.
Kalla said he was happy with the military retirees' support, saying they still held influence especially among their former henchmen in the military. "I'm happy with support coming from retired generals from various forces," Kalla said. "Their influence remains big. And I believe their support comes from the heart."
Salim, though, said he doubted that the retired generals held influence on active TNI troops – who are not allowed to vote nor join the race in Indonesia's elections, let alone among civilians. "The TNI has well proven its neutrality as an institution in previous elections," he said.
Either way, Salim dismissed concerns surrounding the retired generals' active involvement in election campaigns, saying as soon as they were retired, they had the same right as any civilian to vote and to stand for elections.
"They are now just ordinary citizens; nothing to fuss about," he said. "And if any of them attempts to recruit active military members, then the TNI chief must take firm actions against them."
Al Araf, though, thinks there is a reason for concerns, and that they may potentially come from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired Army general himself.
"As the president, the TNI and the intelligence are under his control. He can easily abuse his power and mobilize the military support for Prabowo," Al Araf said.
Although Yudhoyono announced last month that his Democratic Party decided to join none of the two coalitions supporting the two presidential tickets, Al Araf said he believed behind closed doors Yudhoyono was channeling his support for Prabowo and his running mate Hatta, the father of one of Yudhoyono's daughters-in-law.
"He [Yudhoyono] probably wants Prabowo to win so that he can protect him and his son from corruption charges, such as in the Century and Hambalang cases," Al Araf said.
Despite the Democratic Party's non-bloc status, some senior politicians of the party, including House of Representatives speaker Marzuki Alie and former state administrative minister Taufiq Effendi, are enlisted in the Prabowo-Hatta election campaign team.
Yudhoyono on Monday reminded the TNI to remain neutral in the election, but some critics say the statement raised suspicions that certain groups in the TNI actively support one of the presidential candidates.
Al Araf said while retired military and police officials could support candidates, they needed to remain critical about favoring those who have been discharged from the military, referring directly to Prabowo.
Prabowo and members of a team he led under Kopassus – called the Rose Team – are known to have been discharged from the TNI after the Indonesian military tribunal declared that they violated regulations by kidnapping democracy activists in 1998 – although this claim was recently disputed by Prabowo's brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo.
Arbi Sanit, a political analyst from the University of Indonesia, said he believed retired generals joining the two tickets shared different ideologies.
"What I sense is those behind Jokowi-Kalla are in favor of soft democracy, while those in support of Prabowo-Hatta are into hard democracy," Arbi said. "In hard democracy, force is used to pressure and coerce people, with the weak to become the victims," he added.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/retired-indonesian-generals-line-battle-camps/.
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