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| Democratic struggle |
Wahyu, Jakarta -- After consolidating itself theoretically and organisationally in the beginning of the 1990s, the People's Democratic Party (PRD) began organising with workers. The fruit of this was the birth of a number of mass organisations: Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID), the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle (PPBI), the National Peasants Union and an organisation representing the interests of the urban poor.
Among students, SMID has been able to play a dominant role. Their struggle has begun to break out of discussion circles and campus actions; joint actions have been organised between students and workers:
This movement continued to develop and drew in the urban poor masses against the Suharto dictatorship. This finally resulted in the July 27, 1996, crackdown and the arrest of PRD leaders.
Despite the crackdown, the urban poor and the workers continued their struggle. The urban poor in the cities carried out their struggle in the form of riots, while workers continued their economic actions in the factories.
These spontaneous actions by the people preserved the atmosphere of struggle against the authorities and forced the democratic groups to begin launching actions again.
In the midst of the repression against our party, the PRD was still able to mobilise, jointly with the National Committee of Democratic Struggle, around 600 workers at the national parliament to protest against new labour laws. We also organised a 1300-strong march from two factories in north Jakarta to the national parliament and a 19-day strike.
The economic crisis worsened in July 1997, causing the dismissal of millions of workers. The increasing price of goods resulted in even more worker actions. Workers did not show fear of being sacked and continued to demand their rights. Some of these actions were organised jointly with students.
The crisis had an important role for the revolutionary movement because: it occurred at the same time as the development of a movement against the New Order dictatorship; a radical force which had a significant influence at the national level was now working with workers, students, the urban poor and peasants; and the people's political consciousness of the need to overthrow and retake power increased, even though it had not coalesced into mass organisations or a political party.
During the growing economic crisis, the student movement repeatedly rose up until it succeeded in overthrowing Suharto. Afterwards, the movement declined for several months before re- emerging until the November 11-13 special session of the People's Consultative Assembly protests in Jakarta, in which 15 people, some of them students, were killed. The organisation of workers began again in March 1998, after being ignored for some time. It developed very quickly. For example, by June in the Jabotabek industrial region 12,000 workers were mobilised for a demonstration (the action was blocked by unexpectedly large numbers of troops).
On June 9, simultaneous actions were organised in 14 factories. They continued for two days. Prior to this, around 1000 workers held a demonstration at the Department of Labour, demanding the release of Dita Sari, the abolition of the dual function of the armed forces and the withdrawal of repressive labour laws.
Meanwhile, factory strikes continued. After scores of factory actions, the recruitment of workers to the PRD increased considerably. This was also the case in Medan, Semarang, Solo and Sulawesi, although it was smaller in comparison with the Jabotabek region.
After the overthrow of Suharto, political propaganda was more easily accepted in the workers' movement, and workers no longer believed government propaganda claiming that the workers were being used, had been infiltrated by communists and so on. As well, involving workers in actions which were not just about economic issues became easier, as revealed in the involvement of the Workers Reform Action Committee in support of general political demands.
Student-worker actions also began again in Jakarta (on December 13), in Menado (December 10) and in Bandung, West Java.
The workers were organised to continue their struggle in different forms, even though there were no factory-specific issues. This was done through distributing reading material, discussions and joint actions with non-worker organisations. Worker unity also developed between different factories, with demonstrations in solidarity with other workers who had been dismissed, although this has yet to result in mass strikes.
A consciousness and a desire exist among workers to become organised. This is revealed by the emergence of different kinds of independent trade unions at the factory level -- a result of new regulations which allow workers to organise outside of the official government union or non-factory worker organisation.
The people's struggle will continue in the months to come. The students must quickly find genuine allies before they are coopted by the political elite from the liberal bourgeoisie. These liberals are already trying to stop the movement from becoming revolutionary.
Their goal is to get a "ticket" together for the elections, and sit in parliament while assessing if there is a chance for them to replace the New Order. Their political interests have become the same as those of the Habibie government.
[Wahyu is a leader of
Indonesia's People's Democratic Party involved in organising workers.]
| East Timor |
Jakarta -- Four masked men, believed to be members of a pro- independence group, have killed an East Timorese soldier in front of his horrified family members.
Marchal Ximenes (38) and his family were on their way to Osudesima village for a visit on Monday, when the four killers blocked their way and pumped 11 bullets into the hapless soldier, chief of the Wiradarma district military command, Colonel Tono Suratman, disclosed yesterday.
"We regret the brutal killing," he told journalists in Dili, the capital of East Timor. He said the bullets hit Ximenes in the stomach, chest, back and neck, while his body also showed signs of torture. However, the soldier's family was left untouched, he added.
Suratman said the Armed Forces is now trying to identify the killers. "We do not intend to take revenge. However, the murderers must take responsibility for the crime they have committed," he said.
Suratman acknowledged that recent attacks on the province's military personnel are likely to have been conducted by Falintil, the armed division of the Fretilin separatist group.
"Falintil thinks these attacks and murders will intimidate the soldiers. They are misled if they think so," he said, adding the military will continue to uphold its "task" of protecting the East Timorese people.
"Do not ever think that East Timor-born soldiers, who have recently become the target of attacks launched by Falintil, will lose their spirit of protecting the people, because terror will only motivate them all the more to [fight] Falintil, which has been waging a guerrilla war in the forests," Suratman said.
Paul Daley, Canberra -- Successive Australian governments have had access to intelligence reports on Indonesian troop movements in East Timor, including their skirmishes with Fretilin guerrillas and the killing of civilians in the troubled Indonesian province, since at least 1975.
The Howard Government is considering whether to prematurely open Department of Foreign Affairs archives on Australia's East Timor policy between 1974 and 1976. But intelligence and diplomatic sources have told The Age that a "huge volume" of material detailing the troop movements -- and, by implication, Australia's knowledge of them -- is likely to remain in military and intelligence agency records indefinitely.
The existence of the material proves beyond doubt that successive Labor and coalition governments have had access to detailed information about atrocities committed by Indonesia's military.
A former senior Australian diplomat has confirmed that the department often received a daily analysis of some of the intelligence material, based largely on intercepted Indonesian military radio signals, which gave details of the movements of the Indonesian Armed Forces in East Timor.
Mr Bruce Haigh -- who headed the Department of Foreign Affairs' Indonesia desk from 1984 until 1986 -- said the department was given the discretion to send the reports to the minister's office, a practice he routinely followed while Mr Bill Hayden was Foreign Minister.
He said he believed this had been routine practice since the mid-1970s and continued throughout the Hawke and Keating Governments.
"All I know is that the information that was supplied though DSD (the army's Defence Signals Directorate) had been worked on by analysts, because it had obviously been translated. The reports that the department got listed the flights into and out of Dili (by Indonesian troops), the units that were currently based in East Timor, which unit was replacing which unit, and exactly what activities they'd been involved in," Mr Haigh said.
He said the reports often gave the exact time, date and location of military movements, the number of soldiers killed in skirmishes with Fretilin and whether civilians had been killed or injured.
"I used to get this information in a locked bag and we had a discretion to send it off to the minister's office, and I used to send all this stuff to his office ... and he could ask for more information, but he never did. I don't know whether it got to the minister. It certainly got to his office."
Intelligence gathered by Australia's overseas spy network, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, was also woven into the briefings. However, like the original DSD reports, it is believed that this material is stored outside the foreign affairs archives.
The Federal Government last week confirmed it was considering a premature release of the Department of Foreign Affairs records relating to Australia's East Timor policy between 1974 and 1976.
The archival material would include diplomatic cables, policy documents and ministerial advice. It would cover the final year of Mr Gough Whitlam's administration -- when he refused to condemn Indonesia's preparatory invasion of East Timor in 1975 -- and Mr Malcolm Fraser's response to Indonesia's full-scale invasion and subsequent annexation of the province.
But diplomatic figures told The Age that even in the "unlikely event" that the Government releases the material, it would claim an exemption under the Commonwealth Archives Act for any documents based largely on intelligence. This would rule out the release of the most publicly enlightening -- and, from the Government's perspective, potentially damaging -- material.
Sources said a Senate inquiry into Australia's East Timor policy, which is due to begin hearings in July, will also be denied access to the intelligence material.
Despite media speculation that some relevant documents -- such as diplomatic cables and policy briefings -- had gone missing or been destroyed, a department spokesman insisted that the archives were complete. "A thorough search of all the files was made last year and we are confident that all the relevant material is there," he said.
Mr Haigh said he believed the most highly detailed material was indeed available. But much of it is probably not to be found in the department's files, he said.
"So what's around? Everything is there on one file or another. All the stuff surrounding that period '74 to '76 -- if it's not on foreign affairs files, if it's not on defence files, it's on ASIS files, it's on American, Canadian, British and New Zealand files," he said.
Don Greenlees -- Xanana Gusmao was willing to accept house arrest, an East Timorese resistance leader said yesterday after Indonesian authorities had "tested the water" over transferring him out of Jakarta's Cipinang jail.
But Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi has poured cold water on the proposal to place the jailed leader of the Fretelin resistance movement under house arrest, maintaining there was no legal basis for such a move. "There is no such law in Indonesia," Mr Muladi was quoted as telling Indonesian television.
The comments come after The Australian reported that Foreign Minister Ali Alatas raised the option of house arrest for Mr Gusmao at a meeting of the Indonesian Cabinet.
Diplomats said yesterday that President B.J. Habibie and Mr Alatas had privately signalled they were prepared to move Mr Gusmao out of prison so that he could more directly engage in negotiations with the authorities over the future of East Timor.
Although the proposal appeared to be still under consideration, they said the Indonesian Government faced difficulties in resolving legal stumbling blocks and might want to extract further concessions from the East Timorese and the former colonial administrator, Portugal, before proceeding.
Negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal on an autonomy plan for East Timor are due to resume at the UN in New York next week.
A member of the National Council of Timorese resistance, Joao Carrascalao, said Mr Gusmao had been approached in prison by a respresentative of the Government to discuss Mr Alatas's proposal. "He (Mr Gusmao) was quite willing to accept that," Mr Carrascalao told The Weekend Australian. "It was probably just an approach to test the water and see his reaction."
Government sources said Mr Muladi had official carriage of any decision to change Mr Gusmao's status. He began serving a 20-year sentence in 1992 for leading resistance to Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor.
Mr Muladi had earlier raised concerns about "technical difficulties" in implementing Mr Alatas's suggestion. A spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry has played down the prospects of any immediate change to Mr Gusmao's situation.
"So far we have no plan from jail to another place. In fact, Xanana would be better off if he stayed in prison where he could continue with his activities such as painting," the spokesman was quoted as telling the Indonesian Observer newspaper.
Canberra -- Nobel Peace prize winner Jose Ramos Horta believes the release of classified documents on East Timor will reveal Australian complicity in Indonesian atrocities.
The East Timorese activist said full disclosure of government records on East Timor during the 1970s would also help Australia avoid similar mistakes in the future.
"I look forward to the release of documents because it would reveal once and for all the complicity of many Australian leaders in the suppression of truth," he told AAP. "From (former prime minister) Gough Whitlam to (former ambassador to Indonesia) Richard Woolcott, a lot of immorality and pragmatism was policy of Australia for too many years."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is considering releasing documents on East Timor foreign policy between 1974 and 1976, during the period when Indonesia occupied the former Portuguese territory and five newsmen working for Australian media were killed.
Mr Ramos Horta supported the opposition call for the government to declassify all official records relating to Australian policy towards East Timor in the 1970s. "If the government wants to be seen as serious in revealing the truth, it must not be partisan, it must reveal all documents," he said. "These would reveal the Australian government was aware that five newsmen were murdered in East Timor in 1975 and that 200,000 people lost their lives in the worst of the massacres in '77-78.
Mr Ramos Horta, who shared the 1996 Peace Prize with compatriot Bishop Carloa Belo, said the Australian government was fully briefed by its own intelligence services on atrocities. "The Australian government was completely silent then," he said.
Mr Downer's office said if it decided to release the documents the process could take two years. Classified documents from 1974 will be released by the archives in 2004 under the 30-year rule.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- Indonesia is paving the way to transfer Xanana Gusmao out of Jakarta's Cipinang jail and place him under house arrest, in a significant concession to international demands the East Timorese resistence leader be immediately freed.
Under pressure from Western governments to grant Mr Gusmao amnesty and negotiate directly with him over the future status of East Timor, senior Indonesian government sources said Foreign Minister Ali Alatas recently raised the option of house arrest during a meeting of the Habibie Cabinet.
The UN has backed placing Mr Gusmao under house arrest because it would allow him greater freedom to talk to supporters and foreign visitors over proposals by President B.J. Habibie to give East Timor wide-ranging autonomy.
Western diplomats confirmed yesterday Mr Alatas had mentioned the possibility of house arrest on several occasions in another sign of the shift in Indonesian thinking about the protracted dispute over East Timor.
Although diplomatic sources said Mr Gusmao, serving a 20-year sentence for leading a bloody resistance war against Indonesia, had recently expressed interest in the Foreign Minister's proposals, there were conflicting accounts of whether he would accept an offer of house arrest.
But government sources said Indonesia needed to overcome some "technical difficulties" before permitting Mr Gusmao's transfer to house arrest. Among these was the lack of a legal provision for house arrest.The sources said Justice Minister Muladi was consulting with senior colleagues, including Home Affairs Minister Syarwin Hamid and Defence Minister and armed forces commander General Wiranto.
UN envoy on East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, has been pressing the Government to agree to house arrest as an interim step leading to Mr Gusmao's eventual freedom.
Dr Habibie has repeatedly insisted Mr Gusmao will only be released as part of a comprehensive solution to the East Timor conflict, which involved international recognition of Indonesian sovereignty. But government sources said Dr Habibie was likely to accept house arrest if legal requirements could be met.
Indonesian officials say Mr Gusmao has already been given unusual freedom in Cipinang jail, being allowed a constant stream of vistors. Last week, he held talks with three US congressman. He also met Australian ambassador John McCarthy twice last year.
Australia and other Western governments have urged Indonesia to immediately release Mr Gusmao so he could actively take part in negotiations on the status of the former Portuguese colony, invaded by Indonesia 23 years ago.
UN-brokered talks between Indonesia and Portugal are due to resume in New York at the end of the month. But foreign governments, including Australia's, believe Indonesia needs to make greater efforts to deal directly with respected East Timorese leaders.
In a December 21 letter to Dr Habibie, John Howard signalled a significant switch in his Government's policy, backing self- determination for the first time. He also criticised the talks in New York for not giving an "adequate role" to the East Timorese, in particular Mr Gusmao.
Jon Land -- Foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer announced on January 12 that the federal government now recognises that East Timor has the right to self-determination.
In a media release titled "Australian government historic policy shift on East Timor", Downer stated that the "long-term prospects for reconciliation would be best served by the holding of an act of self-determination at some future time, after a substantial period of autonomy".
However, the policy change "does not alter the government's position, which continues to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor". Indonesia's foreign affairs spokesperson, Ghaffar Fadyl, said: "There is a line of contradiction in this case [the policy change]. We consider this a sympathetic attitude because it does underline that Australia recognises the sovereignty of Indonesia over East Timor."
But, he added, the change would have an "adverse affect" on United Nations-sponsored talks on the status of East Timor between Indonesia and Portugal, scheduled to resume in February.
Downer stressed in interviews following the announcement that he does not think a referendum on independence is a viable solution, because it would lead to further "bloodshed" and threaten the national stability of Indonesia.
He cited the 10-year-long Matignon Accord in Kanaky (New Caledonia) as a possible model for East Timor, so that the "people of East Timor have an opportunity to see how sincere autonomy really was". (In fact, the Matignon Accord has undermined the Kanak independence movement.)
The policy change has been cautiously welcomed by leaders of the East Timorese resistance. Jose Ramos Horta told Lusa news service on January 12: "Even if there are some contradictions and ambiguities in it, I know that it is a necessary consideration for Australia to save face -- because they have gone so far as the only western government recognising Indonesian sovereignty [over East Timor], they can't change overnight to supporting an independent Timor."
Speaking from Cipinang Prison in Jakarta, Xanana Gusmao said, "The changes are good, and could erase the political sins of past Australian governments, but Australia is following, not leading, international opinion on East Timor". Gusmao added, "I view autonomy rather sceptically. If we do win autonomy and the conditions are not better for the East Timorese people, then we will keep on fighting until we win independence."
The overwhelming majority of East Timorese favour an immediate referendum on independence. Large pro-independence protests occurred during the visit in December by Jamsheed Marker, the UN special envoy for East Timor. Indeed, several hundred East Timorese youths chased the departing Marker through Dili airport, angered by the slow pace of UN negotiations and the fact that the East Timorese are not directly involved in the talks.
The human rights situation in East Timor has worsened in recent months, particularly in rural areas, where the Indonesian military and civilian militias have been systematically terrorising anyone suspected of supporting independence or the armed resistance. Hundreds have fled to Dili seeking safety.
Falintil leader Taur Matan Ruak told Portuguese radio RDP Antena 1 on January 8 that an extra 3000 Indonesian troops arrived in East Timor between December 23 and January 4.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- Indonesia is angry and the East Timorese are cynical. As Don Greenlees reports, the Howard Government's policy switch on Timor always ran the risk of pleasing no one
Two days before Christmas, Australia's ambassador in Indonesia, John McCarthy, arrived at the colonial-era office of President B. J. Habibie bearing the Howard Government's answer to a problem that for 23 years has been almost as troublesome for politicians in Canberra as in Jakarta.
It was contained in two humbly phrased pages from John Howard. After months of painstaking debate and consultations by diplomats and ministers, in early December Cabinet's National Security Committee had finally arrived at a policy on East Timor it hoped would be credible at home and abroad.
The Prime Minister's letter to Habibie signalled a significant, and risky, change in the Government's thinking on East Timor. For the first time, it was pushing Indonesia to permit an act of self-determination by the East Timorese people.
Referring to the growing support for the East Timorese to be given the right to choose whether they remain part of Indonesia, Howard wrote: "It might be worth considering, therefore, a means of addressing the East Timorese desire for an act of self- determination in a manner which avoids an early and final decision on the future status of the province".
Only a few months earlier Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had been in lockstep with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry by warning such a course would invite a return to the bloody civil war that had been the excuse for Indonesia's 1975 invasion. Hardly surprisingly, the sudden reversal by Canberra was not well received in the ornate meeting room of the presidential palace on December 23.
McCarthy, one of Australia's most experienced diplomats, listened as Habibie ran through his objections. He took particular exception to a paragraph in Howard's letter suggesting Indonesia should consider the example of French decolonisation in New Caledonia under the so-called Matignon Accords.
"The Matignon Accords," Howard had written, "have enabled a compromise political solution to be implemented while deferring a referendum on the final status of New Caledonia for many years."
Habibie was offended by the notion that East Timor -- "socially and geographically integrated into Indonesia" -- could be equated with a French colony. Indonesians, with their bitter history of Dutch colonisation, did not see themselves as neo- colonialists. "It was just a historical fluke it [East Timor] was separated," says one government adviser. "You can't liken it to a French colony ... it does not help to sell the argument."
It was not an auspicious start to the promotion of what Howard had modestly described as some "outside perspectives" on the problem. Howard had gone out of his way to flatter Habibie, referring to his "bold and clear-sighted" decision to open negotiations over autonomy for East Timor and reassuring him that Australia's support for Indonesian sovereignty was "unchanged".
The emerging split with Jakarta remained out of sight until last Tuesday when the story of the Government's rethink was revealed in The Australian. Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, then en route from New York to Singapore, was taken by surprise but responded quickly. He spoke to the head of political affairs in his department, Nugroho Wisnomurti, who prepared a terse statement expressing concern and "deep regret".
Privately, Australia's new stance was seen as "ambivalent" and "contradictory" -- recognising Indonesian sovereignty on the one hand but supporting East Timorese demands for self-determination on the other. This apparent inconsistency was instructive of the difficulties the Government faced developing a sustainable policy. It risked leaving no one happy.
From the moment the Coalition won office in 1996, it was clear Howard and Downer would pursue human rights issues with Indonesia, and other Asian neighbours, as discreetly as possible. Downer ridiculed the "megaphone diplomacy" of Labor.
Through development aid to East Timor and quiet pressure on Jakarta over issues such as reducing troop numbers, the Government felt it could achieve more enduring improvements in the life of the East Timorese than through bellicose rhetoric. Furthermore, it suited Australia's strong desire to see East Timor remain within Indonesia.
After the fall of president Suharto last May and Habibie's decision to offer "special status" to East Timor, it quickly became evident that such an approach might leave Australia looking badly out of touch and out of date.
Only days after Habibie opened the way for East Timor to become a self-governing territory within Indonesia, McCarthy left Jakarta for his first visit to the East Timorese capital, Dili. The city he encountered on June 12 was in the midst of boisterous student demonstrations demanding independence. The elites, too, sensed an increasing prospect of the East Timorese finally wresting the right to decide their future.
With this began months of regular contacts with East Timorese leaders. The Australian side privately considered whether it might host talks between the various East Timorese factions. Although Downer was attracted to the idea of a direct role for Australia, there were few opportunities. The main game was being played out elsewhere. Under the guidance of the UN in New York, Indonesia and Portugal, the former colonial power, were haggling over the details of the autonomy proposal. The East Timorese themselves provided input via the back channel of UN officials.
But the apparent reluctance of the Indonesians to engage popular East Timorese leaders face-to-face, in particular the jailed resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, struck Australian officials as the main weakness in the negotiations.
This view was reinforced in the regular contacts between Australian diplomats and prominent East Timorese. In early July, McCarthy had gone to Jakarta's maximum security Cipinang jail for the first of two meetings with Gusmao, the Fretilin leader imprisoned for 20 years who has become something of an East Timorese Nelson Mandala.
A sign of the impact these unpublicised meetings were having on Canberra's thinking came on August 19, when Downer for the first time advocated Gusmao be released from prison so he could play a greater part in the peace process. It was first public hint of the changes taking place in the Government's attitude.
Although the Indonesian Government remains firm that it will not offer the further concession of a referendum on independence, it is starting to recognise the need to more directly engage the East Timorese. The Government continues to fear that granting a referendum will trigger a domino effect in which first Irian Jaya and then other provinces would seek the same. Yet opinion among the elite is increasingly divided.
"I am less worried about that because I know that East Timor is a special case," says Jusuf Wanandi, head of the Centre for International and Strategic Studies in Jakarta. "They have never been part of Indonesia before and emotionally we have never had that connection, that relationship, those emotional ties that we have with the other parts." The new Australian policy, says Wanandi, is "very realistic".
The East Timorese have been far less animated over the diplomatic nuances. Years of Australian appeasement of Jakarta have generated a great deal of cynicism. With Canberra still backing Indonesian sovereignty, many East Timorese are wondering what's new.
Says MP and Dili newspaper editor Salvador Ximenes Soares: "If Australia withdrew recognition of Indonesian sovereignty, that would be a big change. Australia is just catching up with what is already happening."
Louise Williams, Jakarta -- "Indonesia is not so fragile," scoffed a former Indonesian ambassador in response to Canberra's claim that an independent East Timor would empower other separatist movements and threaten Indonesia's disintegration. Former ambassador to the United States, retired army general Hasnan Habib, and other analysts in Jakarta flatly rejected Canberra's view, which mirrors some of Jakarta's alarmist propaganda of a "Balkanisation" danger, used to oppose Timor's independence movement.
"In the 24 years that East Timor has been with us, it seems serious mistakes have been made by our own Government and we have not been able to win the hearts and minds of the people. We cannot expect the East Timorese to feel like Indonesians. We cannot impose this on them," said General Habib, who was formerly responsible for selling Indonesia's Timor policy to Washington.
"The problem is there is a wrong perception that if the central government allows one province to break off then it will spread," he said. East Timor's independence struggle differs from fledgling separatist movements in other parts of Indonesia. In the resource-rich provinces of Irian Jaya in the far east and Aceh in the far north a handful of separatist guerillas fight Jakarta, backed by a surly population bitterly angry about human rights abuses and the expropriation of natural wealth.
In the Moluccas and parts of Kalimantan there are similar pockets of separatist sentiment among ethnic groups which share neither the religion nor the culture of the dominant Muslims of Java.
But East Timor is the only part of modern Indonesia which was not within the former Dutch East Indies in 1945 when independence was proclaimed. It was added by military invasion. Unlike all other provinces, its integration has not been recognised by the United Nations.
"Disintegration would not necessarily follow" its exit, said political scientist Mr Arbi Sanit. "East Timor was never part of Dutch control. It was incorporated very late in Indonesia's history and has significant international support, which other provinces do not have."
Similar sentiments are for the first time being publicly voiced by Indonesia's alternate leadership. Key Muslim opposition figure Dr Amien Rais has promised a referendum for East Timor. A spokesman for pro-democracy figurehead Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri said East Timor could be excluded from her platform of "One Indonesia".
"Historically, the case of East Timor is different and there have been considerable human rights abuses in the province, so we can say that after 24 years the ideals of our Constitution [national unity] have not been realised," Ms Megawati's spokesman said.
Mr Sanit said separatism in other provinces was mainly fuelled by economic injustice and human rights abuses. In Aceh many local people recently told the Herald they supported the tiny Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) movement because they were angry with the central Government and had no other way to show it.
"Aceh is not like East Timor,"
said Acehnese academic Mr Humum Hamid. "We fought for Indonesia's independence
from the Dutch. We are proud of that contribution. We are interested in
justice - not separation."
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- Sporadic clashes between two ethnic groups have flared up in West Kalimantan, claiming four lives and injuring one man seriously. The clashes took place in Parit Setia village, Jawai subdistrict, 200 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Pontianak, Antara reported yesterday.
The unrest between Madurese transmigrants and Malay ethnic groups, began on Monday when Parit Setia villagers caught a resident of Rambaian village, Tebas subdistrict, attempting to steal something, provincial police spokesman, Captain Suhadi, told Antara. "The thief was caught red-handed even before he stole [the item] and people suddenly began to beat him," Suhadi said.
Local sources said that two days later on Wednesday, some 200 people from Rambaian village descended on Jawai subdistrict and attacked people as they were celebrating the second day of Idul Fitri.
Those who died in the incident were identified as Wasli (40), Mahli (50), Ayub (50) and Pani Bujang (50), all from Parit Setia village, Suhadi said, adding it's not clear if there were any casualties from Rambaian village.
Suhadi claimed the situation was under control despite strong tension in the air and locals worrying about another round of clashes. He said the violence was different from the 1997 clashes between native Dayaks and Madurese (from East Java) in Sanggau Ledo village, which broke out during a music concert and sparked mass killings. On that occasion, locals said the military slaughtered hundreds of civilians to quell the unrest. But the Armed Forces always strongly denied any wrongdoing.
In the latest bout of violence, several attackers have already been detained by police and more are likely to be arrested, said Suhadi, adding that a number of security officers have been deployed in the area to "maintain peace".
Six injured, houses torched in brawl
At least six people were seriously injured, nine houses were burned, and another 18 were badly damaged after a brawl between residents of two villages in North Sulawesi, a report said yesterday.
The clash involved inhabitants of Tabang village and Poyawow Besar village, in Bolaang Mongondow (Bolmong), southwest of the provincial capital of Manado. "The incident has caused total losses of hundreds of millions [of rupiah]," Bolmong administration official F.F. Lendo was quoted as saying by Antara. All of the six people injured in Tuesday's clash are now being treated at Taole Binangkang Kotamobago Hospital.
The burned and damaged houses are all located in Tabang village. The motive behind the brawl was still unclear to Antara yesterday, but some people have been arrested for questioning. Lendo denied the brawl was sparked by ethnic or religious tension.
Jakarta -- Renewed violence and killings underscored tension Saturday in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon after days of rioting that left 45 dead and massive destruction, residents said.
"Five people were killed and burned in the middle of the road this morning in the Mangga Dua area," a witness working for a local newspaper told AFP by telephone.
The five, all Moslems, had been in the back of a truck stopped for an identity check by a mob of villagers in a predominantly Christian area, the witness said. Three soldiers accompanying the truck fired warning shots, but were unable to stop the five being attacked and set on fire just 300 metres from the residence of the Maluku governor.
Another warning shot was fired in town earlier Saturday as security personnel attempted to disband groups of Moslems who insisted on checking the identity of passengers on vehicles passing their areas, a Roman Catholic priest said.
"I have only received a report that some of those checking the cars had been over emotional and had beaten Christian passengers they encountered despite the usual presence of soldiers or police accompanying the cars," Roman Catholic priest Father Ansius said.
Muhammad Nur Wenno, speaking from Ambon's Al-Fatah main mosque near the port, said he had received reports from outlying areas that houses were being burned in several areas Saturday. "One of them was the house of the head of the TVRI (the state television) and also houses in the residential complex in Diponegoro street and in the OSM neighbourhood," Wenno said, adding some looting was also reported. A staff at the Maluku province police information centre, however, denied the incidents, saying "the city has returned to calm since yesterday."
A Christian housewife, Andris, who had fled her wrecked house in the predominantly Moslem Jalan Baru area to seek refuge at the Silo church late on Friday, spoke of ongoing tension.
"In my area, nobody dares to go out of their home. My house has been completely ruined, even the walls were not left standing," Andris said.
"The streets there are still empty. Some Moslem neighbours protected me and some of my belongings for two days, but I fled to the church yesterday evening as I still did not feel safe in the neighbourhood." At least 160 people were seeking refuge at Silo church, she added. At Al Fatah, some 11,000 civilians were seeking refuge, Wenno said.
Troops were also on the streets. Although some clearing of the rubbles on the streets had begun, most of the town was still littered with stones, debris and burned vehicles.
The Surya Citra Televisi private television station quoted a correspondent as saying from Ambon that an Indonesian airforce Hercules arrived at 7am and "tens of foreigners" were boarding it but there was no further details. The plane is believed to be heading for Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi, sources here said. Diplomats in Jakarta have said that several embassies had been negotiating the use of a military Hercules aircraft to evacuate foreigners from Ambon.
Maluku chief of police Colonel Karyono was Friday quoted by the Antara news agency as saying the death toll in three days of Moslem-Christian rioting in Maluku province had reached at least 45 Friday. Antara quoted Karyono as saying the toll was likely to rise. His office could not be immediately reached Saturday. Ambon's Pattimura airport could also not be contacted by telephone Saturday.
The violence, which erupted Tuesday following a dispute between a Moslem migrant and a local Christian public transport driver, quickly degenerated into raging riots between members of communities of both religions.
The violence later spread to Sulabesi some 300 kilometres northwest of Ambon and Seram island just north of Ambon island where the city of the same name lies and also other villages on the island of Ambon itself. More than 3,000 soldiers and police have been deployed to reestablish order in Ambon, including hundreds from outside the province, police said.
Jakarta -- Security forces patrolled three remote eastern Indonesian islands and imposed a curfew Friday after days of deadly rioting by rival mobs of Christians and Muslims.
Police feared the death toll, now at 24, could climb on the troubled islands of Ambon, Sanana and Seram in the Maluku group, known in Dutch colonial times as the Spice Islands. About 3,000 people fled their homes for the safety of army bases and police stations.
A group of 40 foreigners, mainly American and British Christian missionaries, were evacuated by charter plane from Ambon to Darwin in neighboring Australia Thursday night. "There's rioting, burning, looting. Some people died," Australian Broadcasting Corp. television quoted one of the evacuees as saying. "We decided it was best to get out of there while we still could," said another.
The worst carnage occurred on Ambon, 2,300 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, where 22 people have been killed since Tuesday. At least 10 mosques and churches were set afire along with dozens of homes and other buildings.
About 2,500 police and troop reinforcements have been flown in to restore order after three days of mayhem. Police fired warning shots to disperse rampaging mobs at the height of the fighting. Some rioters claim their friends were shot to death.
Police said there no outbreaks of fighting Thursday morning. However, residents contacted by telephone said gangs of men armed with machetes and sticks roamed Ambon's streets.
The violence was the latest in a series of clashes to hit Indonesia as it grapples with its worst economic crisis in three decades. Soaring inflation, unemployment and poverty rates have all increased social tensions.
About 90% of Indonesia's 202 million people are Muslim, making it the world's most populous Islamic country. The riots hit areas with large Christian populations.
Police said 134 people were injured in Ambon, 102 of them seriously. Many were stabbed, beaten or trapped in burning buildings. Some were attacked with rocks, machetes, clubs and even bows and arrows. Ambon's airport remained closed to commercial flights on Thursday.
Surabaya -- Five people accused of being black magicians were murdered over the past two weeks in Indonesia's East Java province, a cleric said on Thursday.
"It is so sad that ... the killing of alleged black magicians is not yet over ...," said Fairul Anam, who heads an investigation into the violence for Nahdlatul Ulama, a Moslem organisation.
Anam said a woman and her son, accused of being black magicians, were killed on Sunday in Jember village by assailants wearing black ninja-style clothes. Three other people were killed in separate attacks in nearby towns over the past two weeks. Police were not immediately available for comment.
An official team probing a spate of murders of Moslem clerics and alleged black magicians in December verified 182 deaths but shed no light on who was responsible. The team's report said it was fairly certain the killings, which terrorised the densely populated eastern part of the main island of Java for months, had been organised.
The victims were often chopped to pieces and tied to bundles that were dangled from trees or thrown into mosques. The military has come under heavy criticism for not stopping the killings, which peaked in September. Several people have been charged in the murders but no one has been convicted.
Jakarta -- Bloody rioting among rival mobs of Christians and Muslims flared for a third straight day Thursday on a remote island in eastern Indonesia. At least 22 people were killed, police said.
They feared the death toll could rise as religious strife intensifies on Ambon Island, 2,300 kilometers northeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Dozens have been injured and many residents have fled their homes for the safety of the nearby Halong naval base. Hundreds of others are sheltered in police stations. "We all are frightened now. We are getting out with our children. The men will stay behind to guard our houses," said one woman who identified herself as Rosdiana.
The rioting started Tuesday night after Muslims from the village of Batumerah attacked a man from the neighboring Christian-dominated village of Mardika. They accused him of being drunk and insulting their Islamic beliefs. The trouble later spread to the city of Ambon and other nearby villages.
Sporadic fighting continued Wednesday after 700 riot police and troops were deployed. The island's airport was shut Thursday morning except for military flights bringing reinforcements. Armed gangs blocked surrounding roads. On Thursday, mobs armed with machetes, spears and crowbars were enraged by reports that mosques and churches had been set on fire.
Local police chief Col. Karyono S.M. said six houses of worship had been burned and dozens of vehicles damaged. "The violence is as bad as it was on the first day," one police officer said on condition of anonymity. The official Antara news agency said at least 100 people had been badly injured and more than 30 houses burned in Ambon.
Jakarta -- At least five outbreaks of mob violence on Indonesia's Java island marred the two-day Moslem Eid al-Fitr holiday in addition to rioting in Maluku in which 20 died, officials and reports said Thursday.
Young people from neighbouring villages near Cirebon on the north coast of West Java brawled on Wednesday. Two people were injured, three houses were burned and 100 people sought refuge at a local mosque, police said. An officer at Cirebon police office told AFP Thursday troops remained on alert but the situation in Kepetakan and Bedulan was returning to normal. "Thankfully the situation has returned to normal but the problems among the feuding villagers still have to be resolved among themselves," the officer said.
Two incidents of violence were reported on the north coast of Central Java on Wednesday, the Antara news agency said. In Tegal the house of a former village head was destroyed following anger over the recent election of a village chief.
In Pemalang, 30 kilometers from Tegal, several public buildings were destroyed in a clash between two villages over rumors that a man from one village had been tortured to death. Some 200 residents of Sugihwaras, believing unfounded rumours that the man had died at the hands of neighbouring Widuri villagers, attacked Widuri and destroyed a village hall, a health care centre, a mosque and an elementary school.
The Kompas daily said violence also broke out at Banyumas in Central Java and at Bojonegoro in East Java. In Banyumas residents from two villages -- Karangcengis and Purwaraja -- fought after a man from Purwareja was nabbed by people in the other village on suspicion of theft. No serious injuries or damage were reported during the fight Wednesday.
In Bojonegoro hundreds of pedicab drivers Wednesday attacked a local police post in search of a military policeman who allegedly roughed up one of their colleagues. The mob burned a military police jeep and besieged the police post, blocking 500 metres of the main highway with hundreds of pedicabs, Kompas said.
It said the mob was appeased when the local military commander offered the pedicab drivers six million rupiah (about 750 dollars) in compensation for loss of revenues because of their protest, and promised to discipline the guilty officer.
Unrest and incidents of mass violence have been increasing since the economic crisis hit Indonesia in mid-1997. Respect for police and troops has dwindled following accusations of past mass abuses.
Jakarta -- The total number of Indonesian now living in poverty has reached 130 million, a sharp increase from 80 million in mid-last year, an official report said Friday. Two years ago, the number of the poor in the crisis-ridden Indonesia was only 20 million.
Minister of Social Affairs Justika S. Baharsjah was quoted by Antara news agency as saying the government has pledged to overcome the problem through the Social Security Net program. Under the program, the 130 million poor or 20 million families would be provided with 20 kilograms of rice monthly along with unpaid health care, she said. The government allotted 3 trillion rupiahs for the fiscal years 1999/2000, she said.
Indonesia is currently enduring
its worst economic crisis in 30 years. The annual inflation rate is running
at 80% and millions have been put out of work as debt-burdened businesses
close.
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events
| Aceh/West Papua |
Louise Williams, Jakarta -- Indonesia's armed forces were scrambling to contain a backlash over the torture and beating deaths of five men in military custody last week, as details emerged today of the lynching by civilians of another soldier in the troubled northern province of Aceh.
Local press reports said Sergeant Burhanuddin was lured into an isolated area where a mob was waiting for him. He was beaten to death early yesterday morning and his body dumped at a local mosque. He was the eighth soldier to be killed in revenge attacks in Aceh in recent weeks.
Continuing riots were reported on the island of Sulawesi, where almost 400 houses have been burnt down and six people killed over the past week, and more refugees were arriving in the East Timorese capital of Dili, seeking refuge from intimidation by civilian gangs armed by the military.
The state rail company today reported that at least five trains were being attacked every day in Java by rock-throwing mobs, causing millions of rupiah in damages. One passenger sustained serious head injuries last week.
Civilians have begun turning their frustrations on symbols of the Government and the armed forces, since the resignation of President Soeharto last May, kindling fears of a cycle of revenge over human-rights abuses during the Soeharto regime.
Student groups, calling for the trial of Mr Soeharto and the end of the military's role in politics, have announced they will resume mass demonstrations. after the fast-breaking celebrations and political analysts say big protest could turn violent. As Indonesia's majority Muslims prepared to celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan tomorrow, commentators lamented the violence that marked the holy month, despite strict religious obligations to avoid conflict and abstain from eating, smoking and sex during daylight hours.
"It is hard to find another such reference in history in which Muslims have desecrated their own holy month by trying to kill each other," the Jakarta Post newspaper lamented in an editorial.
The latest attacks came as a military prosecutor demanded the sacking and jailing of the commander of a local battalion in Aceh whose men forced their way into a detention centre where they tortured and beat 40 local suspects last weekend, killing four and seriously injuring 26 others. A fifth man died in hospital this morning.
The 40 were suspected sympathisers of the "Aceh Merdeka" (Free Aceh) movement, which is seeking independence from Jakarta, but locals said they were not separatists but supported Aceh Merdeka to show their anger over almost a decade of human rights abuses by the armed forces.
In South Sulawesi clashes were continuing between two villages, in what appeared to be a religious conflict between Muslim settlers from Java and local Christians over land ownership. Truckloads of refugees were pouring into the district capital of Palopo where camps were being set up, and new arrivals said the military had been outnumbered and could not control the violence.
In East Timor, almost 400 refugees were camping in the capital Dili, saying they were fleeing intimidation by armed gangs and reporting attacks on local health-care centres and pillaging of medical equipment.
Jakarta -- Indonesian police admitted Monday they "acted too hastily" in opening fire on a group in the troubled province of Aceh, leaving at least four people injured.
North Aceh deputy police chief Major Amrin Remico told AFP no one was killed but two people were injured by gunshots and two others were slightly injured while trying to run away. "Our members were haunted by fear and trauma. But I must admit they have acted too hastily and we have handed over the case to the military police," Remico said.
He said two police sergeants who allegedly fired the shots were being detained for questioning by military police in Lhokseumawe, the main town in North Aceh district.
Scores of people had come to a police station in Blangjruen near Lhokseumawe in the early hours of Sunday, allegedly to report a traffic accident, Remico said. But police, seeing the group heading towards them and traumatized by past attacks against security personnel since December, began to shoot at the crowd.
The head of Iskandar Muda Legal Aid Foundation in Lhokseumawe, Yacob Hamzah, said one civilian was shot dead in the incident and one injured. He said police had not made any arrests. While Remico said the crowd that came to the police post numbered in the hundreds, Hamzah said they were only ten of them.
Meanwhile an angry mob Saturday burnt two houses and one car belonging to two suspected military collaborators in Aceh, the state Antara news agency said Monday.
Hundreds of people went to a house in Muko Kurang village in Pidie district to seek a man named Sulaeman whom they believed had been an informer when Aceh was under military operation status for about a decade, Antara quoted Pidie military chief Lieutenant Colonel Iskandar MS as saying.
Unable to find Sulaeman, who fled by car to the house of his friend Mahdi, the mob grew furious and torched his house before setting fire to Mahdi's house as well. Mahdi was also suspected by the mob to have been an informer. Security personnel finally managed to quell the mob.
Jakarta -- A man who was tortured by soldiers while under detention in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh has died in hospital, bringing the death toll from the incident to five, a hospital employee said Monday.
"One of the four seriously wounded, named Ayub, died at the intensive care unit on January 17 at 5pm," said an employee of the state hospital in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, who identified himself only as Zakaria.
He was referring to four seriously injured men who were brought in with 16 other injured men on January 9, following torture by about 50 soldiers on some 40 civilians detained by security authorities in Lhokseumawe following anti-rebel raids there. Four other detainees had died following the violence.
Zakaria could not say the exact cause of the latest death but he said most of those injured, including the four seriously injured, had been admitted with serious head wounds.
The attack on the detainees who were kept at a building belonging to a youth organisation near the local military command, caused a public outrage that has led to apologies by local and central military leaders.
A total of 27 soldiers have been detained following the attack and Armed Forces Chief General Wiranto has said they will be brought to a military tribunal. The court martial of five of the 27 soldiers -- one infantry major and four privates -- began on Saturday in Banda Aceh, the main city in Aceh some 300 kilometres west of Lhokseumawe.
The tortured detainees were arrested during anti-rebel raids intended to capture the alleged leader of a separatist group and to find two soldiers believed to have been kidnapped by rebels. The military operation followed the killing of seven Indonesian soldiers and the abduction of two officers late in December.
The security forces have yet again behaved brutally towards Acehnese people. The incident occured at around 1.30am on Sunday 17 January in front of the police station in Blang Jereun, Lhkosukon, North Aceh, when members of the police force opened fire on a group of people who were taking a casualty of a traffic accident to hospital.
Altogether 19 people were escorting the person to hospital, some of whom were in the vehicle transporting the casualty while others were riding behind on motorcycles.
The police mistook the group for a demonstration; they panicked and according to our information, opened fired without even given any warning shots. The police were about 20 meters from the crowd. One of the men who opened fire has since been identified as first sergeant Hokki
The five people wounded are: Jafar Husen (27) from Desa Blang Jereun, who is in a critical condition; Rusli (25) from Alue who was lightly wounded; Saifuddin (18)from Alue who was lightly wounded; Amri Harun (20) from Alue who as wounded in the leg and had to undergo an operation; and Hendri (26) from Alue.
We were heard this incident because several SMUR members were staying with some victims of the Operasi Wibawa '99 who are being treated in Lhokeumawe General Hospita; these people still feel very scared about what may happen to them.
At around 4.30 in the morning, the wounded people were taken to Mobiloil Polyclinic for treatment but since the treatment there was inadequate, SMUR's chairman Kautsar contacted the district chief to ask him to get in touch with Lhokseumawe Hospital so that they could be taken there. Liliwangsa military commander Col Johnny Wahab was at the hospital at the time and promised to instruct the local police to investigate the incident.
Kautsar, SMUR's chairman has strongly condemned the action of the police as yet another sign of the lack of professionaliam of the armed forces.
Jakarta -- An Indonesian army major being court martialed for the torture of Aceh villagers during which four died faces four years in jail and dismissal from the army, the military police said Sunday.
"During the trial this morning, the military prosecution read out its demand that the defendant be jailed four years and incur the additional punishment of dismissal," an officer on duty at the Aceh military police headquarters said by telephone.
The officer, who spoke from Banda Aceh the capital of the troubled province and declined to identify himself, said the second day of the trial Sunday had gone without a hitch. "Now it is adjourned and will be resumed at 4:00pm," the officer said.
He was refering to the court martial of infantry Major Bayu Najib, 40, charged with the torture of Aceh villagers leading to the deaths of four. Earlier Private Suradi from the same military police headquarters said attendance was thin as the trial started at 8:00 a.m.
Najib is the former executive commander of Infantry Battalion 113, based in Bireun, some 240 kilometres east of Banda Aceh. He and other troopers allegedly tortured about 40 villagers detained in a building belonging to a youth organization in Lhokeumawe, some 60 kilometres further east of Bireun. Four of the detainees died and 20 others were hospitalized for serious injuries.
At the opening of his trial on Saturday Najib was accused with two crimes under the criminal code -- violence against another person and torture. The charges carry up to 12 years in jail. The trial of another four privates who were under Najib's command, which opened separately at the same building on Saturday, did not resume Sunday, Suradi said.
The five soldiers, including Najib, were among 27 soldiers so far suspected of involvement in the attack and violence against the detainees. Military authorities have said they will all face court martials.
The tortured detainees were arrested during anti-rebel raids intended to capture the alleged leader of a separatist group and to find two soldiers believed to have been kidnapped by rebels. The military operation followed the killing of seven Indonesian soldiers and the abduction of two officers late in December. The 22 other soldiers also believed to be implicated in the attack are still being detained in Lhokseumawe.
A source in the military
said the court martials were expected to reach a verdict on Monday, before
the Eid al-Fitr Moslem holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta -- Indonesian police have shot 41 highway robbers and arrested 362 others along the northern Java island coast as part of a drive to safeguard travelling for millions of people during the Moslem Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.
National police information office head Brigadier General Togar Sianipar said 23 of the 41 shot died of their wounds, newspapers reported Saturday. "They had to be shot because they were resisting arrest," Sianipar was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia daily.
The security operation came after national police chief General Rusmanhadi declared last month that officers would shoot offenders plundering food trucks and attacking commuters along the northern coast of Java.
The highway on the northern Java coast carries heavy traffic during the annual exodus to rural areas at Eid-el-Fitr, which marks the end of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. The festival this year falls next week.
Crime has surged since the
economic crisis hit the country in July 1997, driving millions into poverty.
Warehouses and provisions shops have been looted, often following false
rumors of handouts of free or cut-price food.
| News & issues |
Dorinda Elliott -- There may be a financial crisis in Indonesia, but Ida Royani's business is booming. Her fashion collection has been rushed off to the stores, where outfits are flying off the racks as women buy new clothes to celebrate this week's end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. For prices ranging from $250 to $500, there are silk-chiffon caftans, batik sarongs with flowing scarves, hand-stitched, beaded confections and even one dress with Ida's name hand-painted in Arabic across the front. All are tailored with the proper decorum, to hang loosely and cover any suggestive curves. Ida, 45, is Indonesia's top Islamic designer, and business has never been so good. The wife of President B. J. Habibie just visited her shop to stock her wardrobe. "Nobody ever said Muslim fashion can't be beautiful. Why not?" says Ida, a former singer who once wore hot pants and plunging necklines. Indeed, she is beautiful in a black caftan, an ikat scarf echoing the earth tones of Javanese batik and dark lipstick the color of passion fruit. "Business is good," she says. "Everyone wants my clothes!"
Islam is all the rage in Indonesia, and not just in politics. On TV, a radiant woman covered from head to toe in white robes is singing out to children, office workers and villagers to join her. They all come along, singing and swaying, marching to a shining white light, the mosque. It is an ad for a bank. It's also part of Indonesians' attempt to sort out their national identity in the chaos that has erupted since President Suharto stepped down. Two decades of breakneck modernization led to a confusing schizophrenia: the thumping rhythm of discos and shopping malls competes with the drone of the traditional gamelan and ancient feudal rituals. Now, in the rubble of economic collapse, Western consumerism and Indonesian mysticism alike seem to have failed. Instead, many people seem to be searching for a firmer foundation. "There has been a rebirth of Islamic activity," says Umar Kayam, an expert on Javanese culture at Gadjah Mada University. "We are facing very difficult times, so people find solutions in religion."
Not all of these solutions are spiritual. Though Muslims are a 90 percent majority, Indonesia's scattered islands and diverse cultures make it a fractured mosaic of cultures and religions; over the centuries, Javanese animism and mysticism have adapted and absorbed elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Nonetheless, in its extreme form, the Muslim revival has led angry mobs to burn churches and businesses owned by Indonesia's ethnic Chinese citizens, most of whom are Christian. A small group of radical Muslims is even pushing for Indonesia to become an Islamic state, with strict Islamic laws. Watching the political agitation around them, non-Muslims fear that if Indonesia becomes an Islamic country, "life would become impossible for us," says a Chinese legal aide in Jakarta. "This is not what I want for my Indonesia."
But Indonesian Islam is a far cry from the strict version practiced in the Middle East. Jakarta's streets twinkle with Christmas lights, though fewer than in earlier years. McDonald's hangs curtains in the windows during Ramadan so as not to offend fasting Muslims, but still serves those who wish to eat. Garuda Airlines (whose symbol is a Hindu god) plays Christmas carols on a domestic flight before the pilot announces sunset, the end of the Muslim fast. While more Indonesians pray five times a day and fast, most Muslims are nonpracticing; they wear no Islamic clothing, and they are as Javanese as they are Muslim. They burn incense to their ancestors and believe that the natural world is full of spirits. They believe that the dalang, the shadow puppeteer, has supernatural powers and visit the dukun, or sorcerers, to solve their problems.
Tabib Aulia, a healer in Yogyakarta, the spiritual center of Java, shows how Islam mixes easily with Javanese superstitions. Aulia says he employs the Koran and the power of Allah to cure everything from cancer to impotence. For $25 to $150, depending on the severity of the problem, Aulia will also magically insert pieces of gold under his clients' skin, to make them appear more beautiful or help resolve other difficulties. These days, many people ask him to give their businesses a boost; a gold implant, he says, will make people buy their products. For a fee, he will also mail small magical Javanese knives, called krises, to clients for good luck or general health.
In Jakarta, middle-class clients line up to see Kusnadi, 72, for everything from marital problems to exorcisms. He says he uses incense, broken glass, flowers, nails and razor blades to cure people. With power he says he derived from his Islamic ancestors (he slept on his grandmother's grave for 1,000 days to hone his supernatural powers), Kusnadi scribbles messages from the Koran and instructs women patients to wear them in their bras to fend off black magic. He says Suharto asked for advice on controlling his rage shortly before he resigned. Kusnadi told Suharto's messenger the anger stemmed from shame about his corruption. Working himself into a trance, Kusnadi tenses, panting, growling, lunging with knuckles flexed. With the spirits' help, he says, he has "become a tiger." But that doesn't mean he's not also a good Javanese Muslim.
The new middle class, while increasingly devout, will fight to bar Islam from politics. Enrollment is way up at the Islam Al- Azhar Number One high school, one of Jakarta's most prestigious and expensive schools. "Especially in the middle class, Islam is growing, because it teaches how to live with our fellow man," says Mustainah, the principal, dressed in a colorful Islamic head scarf and lipstick. "We could never be like Iran, because we have too many different people and cultures. All our differences are a gift to the country." According to Onghokkam, a prominent historian, middle-class politics is developing for the first time, with people pushing for real programs -- to fight poverty, for example, or corruption -- that include all races and religions.
Only a few Islamic laws are practiced in Indonesia, and the middle class is already pushing for an even more liberal approach. According to the Constitution, men and women are equal. There is no Middle East-style chopping-off of hands as a punishment for theft. There is no Islamic law forbidding men and women from having sex before marriage. Educated Muslims often ignore the Islamic inheritance law, which grants male descendants twice as much as females, and disperse their property equally. Some Muslims also ignore the Islamic adoption law, which grants no inheritance rights to adopted children. To bypass the marriage law, which prevents Muslims from marrying non-Muslims, young couples get married overseas. "Because of better education, Muslims are starting to criticize certain Islamic laws as going against their rights," says Apong Herlina, director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute.
For many Indonesians, Islam is an anchor in a turbulent sea. Some politicians may want to manipulate religious divisions for their own gain, and they may have an audience among Indonesia's most desperate Muslims -- but not among the people who have rediscovered Islam and are exploring the newfound territory. Historian Onghokkam says an Islamic government "would destroy Indonesia." The educated class understands the dangers. "Oh, no, if we did that people would quarrel too much," says designer Ida. She is far more concerned about the fact that so many other designers are ripping off her styles. The idea that Islam is beautiful has caught on, and it's moving plenty of merchandise.
Jakarta -- The family members of former Indonesian Communist Party -- PKI -- members could not only vote or be elected but could also form a political party providing they did not deviate from the national ideology, Pancasila.
Golkar General Chairman Akbar Tanjung made this announcement in Jakarta on 17th January in response to a decision on draft election laws which allowed for ex-PKI family members to vote, and be elected as members of the national legislature in the coming election. Previously ex-PKI were allowed only to vote but not to be elected. " It is legitimate for them to form a political party," said Tanjung.
He added that his statement was in line with Golkar's attitude to put aside past incidents and look to the future to build a stronger Indonesia... The chairman of the National Awakening Party, Alwi Shihab, separately said that there were no longer any reasons to restrict the rights of ex-PKI members...
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Recruitment of a civilian militia has started in the capital, amid growing fears these bamboo-stick wielding men could foment trouble in the coming months.
A Jakarta military command spokesman said recruitment began on January 11. Recruits must be male, aged between 18 and 45 and possess at least junior high school qualifications.
The plan for a civilian army drew widespread criticism when first mooted last month. Training of what the military hopes will be a 12,000-strong force is to start on February 1 at 14 military centres across Jakarta.
When justifying the allocation of funds for the militia in the state budget, armed forces commander and Minister of Defence General Wiranto said the civilian army would "help create a feeling of safety in society as well as to enforce the law and maintain stability".
But not everyone sees it quite like that. "I think the so- called militia is just a ruse by the military to turn the people against each other," said Annas Alamudi, a member of the KB-UI, a student group at the University of Indonesia. "The army doesn't want the people to be unified because a unified people is a threat to the status quo. Our view is the army is using the civilian militia to divide and conquer."
Members of the militia will receive just two weeks of training, for which they will be paid 100,000 rupiah. Once deployed, they will receive 200,000 rupiah per month. This is good money in a context where ordinary people are trying to survive mass unemployment and economic distress.
The military spokesman said militia members would not be armed with guns, only with bamboo sticks and shields. Officially named the People's Security (Kamra), the militia's main goal would be to help security personnel safeguard the general election planned for June.
"This adds an element of total uncertainty to the conduct of elections," a prospective monitor of the vote said. "They will be everybody's shock troops."
Opponents of the civilian army also fear that the armed forces or the police could divert blame towards the militia for anything untoward that might happen. Those who witnessed the killings of students at Atmadjaya University in central Jakarta in November recall how truck-loads of unidentified civilians, armed with pointed sticks, were used to provoke the students.
One observer said: "The students were remarkably restrained. Here were these thugs throwing rocks and insults at the them. It was deliberate provocation, with the army and police watching."
The militia will be authorised to carry out some police duties, such as checking ID cards. They also will be empowered to make arrests. "These men will be physically and mentally drilled to boost their strength and discipline," the military spokesman said. "They will also be taught general knowledge, including human rights and law."
Former President Suharto drew the anger of a group of dispossessed villagers yesterday on a rare trip out of the Indonesian capital. About 150 people protested against Suharto in the Java island town of Solo, where the ex-army general travelled earlier this week to visit the grave of his wife.
The activists said the Government seized their homes a decade ago while Suharto was still in power, so officials could build a dam and flood their village near Solo. The village, Kedung Ombo, no longer exists.
Suharto, 77, quit in May after riots and protests against his 32-year authoritarian rule and has been living as a virtual recluse in his Jakarta home. He and five of his six children travelled to Solo to spend the Muslim feast days of Eid al-Fitr near the grave of his wife, Siti Hartinah, who died in May 1996. Suharto faces a corruption investigation and has been accused of enriching his family and associates at the expense of the State.
The protesters in Solo, 480km southeast of Jakarta, staged a sit-in on a main road and demanded in vain to meet with Suharto to discuss their grievances. "What about our land? We have been living like scavengers for the past 10 years," one resident shouted. The demonstrators dispersed after one hour when police chief Colonel Zainal Abidin said that Suharto was too busy to meet with them.
Since his resignation, Suharto has been the target of student protests demanding that he be put on trial. In recent months, hundreds of troops have been deployed daily to prevent activists from marching to his Jakarta home. Student leaders in Solo had earlier threatened to demonstrate against Suharto during his trip. But campuses have been quiet.
Jakarta -- A court Friday ruled against an Indonesian student activist arrested on suspicion of abducting a police intelligence officer, saying his claim to have been illegally arrested could not be proven.
South Jakarta District Court presiding judge Darlan Nasution ruled against the suit filed by Indonesian Christian University student Edward Taurus Sikaro-karo against Jakarta police, charging they had illegally arrested him, a witness said.
"The plaintiff could not prove his charges ... that his arrest was unlawful," Nasution said in his verdict. The verdict was greeted by jeers and insults from more than 30 students who had gathered in front of the courthouse, unable to enter because of strict security measures. "The court is unfair," "Long live students," and "Long live the people," shouted the protesting students, who faced more than 100 police deployed to guard the courthouse.
Another panel of judges at the same court Monday ruled in favor of another student, Rudi Pahala Simatupang Siburian, who was arrested along with Sikaro-karo. Police lawyer I Ketut Sudiarsa said the cases of Sikaro-karo and Siburian were identical but that unfortunately in the case of Siburian, police had been unable to provide the court with original arrest documents.
Jakarta -- The South Jakarta district court Monday ruled that a student activist, arrested on suspicion of abducting a police intelligence officer should be released as his arrest did not follow legal procedures.
South Jakarta court presiding judge Sultan Mangun ruled in favor of Indonesian Christian University student Rudi Pahala Simatupang Siburian who charged that the Jakarta police had illegally arrested him, a witness said.
"The court finds the arrest on the plaintiff as illegal and the defendant should immediately release him," Mangun said, reading the verdict.
Siburian and fellow student Edward Taurus Sikaro-karo were arrested on December 8 on suspicion of kidnapping and robbery with violence in connection with the abduction of an intelligence agent during a student protest in November.
Both have separately lodged a protest with the police demanding that they be released as they were arrested without warrants and their detention did not follow proper procedures. The same court is due to hand down a verdict in the case of Sikaro-karo on Thursday, after the Moslem Eid al-Fitr celebration.
The court on Monday also granted one million rupiah (114 dollars) out of the one billion rupiah of material losses demanded by the plaintiff from the police for his arrest and detention.
Margot Cohen, Ujung Pandang -- More than 30 years ago, Rahmat Hasanuddin boarded a canoe at a remote hamlet on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and journeyed in search of higher education. Eventually he reached Ujung Pandang, the capital of South Sulawesi province; then he went on to Jakarta and even the United States, becoming a management consultant and academic along the way. Now he yearns for a triumphant return to his native soil and ethnic-Mandar roots -- as the crusader for a new province called West Sulawesi, to be sliced away from existing South Sulawesi.
"If I don't do this now, I won't create history," muses Rahmat, 50, who is now rector of Cokroaminoto University in Ujung Pandang. "This is the moment!"
As reformasi throws open exciting opportunities for Indonesia's 27 provinces to gain political and fiscal autonomy, local interest groups are rushing forward with plans to create a raft of new provinces. These crusaders are not looking for independence -- just a piece of the action. They aim to increase local prosperity by wresting control of natural resources and cutting deals directly with foreign investors.
Their cause is championed by Yusril Ihza Mahendra, an influential legal scholar and chairman of a new Muslim political party, Partai Bulan Bintang. He favours splitting Indonesia into 40 provinces, which, he says "would speed up development and simplify government."
The backers of wannabe provinces anticipate a sympathetic hearing from President B.J. Habibie, a Sulawesi native. Yet Habibie, who has not taken a public stance on the issue, will probably leave such weighty decisions to the new parliament formed after mid-year elections. "You can't expect a transitional government to play such dangerous games," says one top Habibie aide.
Many other Indonesians, including military leaders, fear that a proliferation of autonomous provinces could intensify ethnic rivalries and trigger a throwback to the bad old days of warring fiefdoms in the 16th to 18th centuries.
For their part, the technocrats in the central government are not averse to creating provinces. To ease administration, they already plan to subdivide three oversized ones: Irian Jaya, East Kalimantan and the Moluccan islands. But they caution that setting up new provinces is expensive, and that smart managers and public vigilance are necessary to ensure efficiency. "We can afford 34 provinces. We can't afford 40," says Herman Haeruman, deputy for regional development at the National Development Planning Agency. He calculates that each new province will need 100 billion rupiah ($12.7 million) for new government buildings. Adding 400 new civil servants per province will cost 2 billion rupiah a month.
But the crusaders believe they can come up with the money. Take Riau province, home to the Caltex oilfields, the Natuna gas field and the Batam island industrial centre. The province spans a piece of mainland Sumatra, plus an archipelago of 1,026 small islands. For years, island residents have gazed enviously at the more prosperous mainland, where Riau's provincial capital, Pekanbaru, calls the shots.
If the islanders push for their own province, they'll stake a claim to both Natuna and Batam, scooping up revenues that now flow to Jakarta. Huzrin Hood, a leader in Riau's chamber of commerce, says the would-be province could count on at least 400 billion rupiah right there. And business would pick up sharply, Huzrin adds, since the new province could negotiate directly with investors and traders from nearby Singapore and Johor. "With the governor in Pekanbaru, only those close to the governor get permits," he says.
The University of Riau held a packed seminar in September to stimulate public debate on the proposal to form a new province. And a new local magazine plans to poll the islanders, whose support for the proposal has yet to be gauged.
The would-be founders of West Sulawesi appear to be working in a stealthier fashion. They aim to take over a third of South Sulawesi, namely the regencies of Polmas, Majene and Mamuju. Most of the 850,000 residents are Mandar, a group related to the Malays but with their own language. Rahmat is preparing an application to submit to Habibie, and hopes the parliament chosen in mid- year elections will issue a speedy stamp of approval.
At present, few prospective West Sulawesians have a clue as to what is brewing. Instead of putting his case directly to the local people, Rahmat is busy lining up support among descendants of the traditional aristocracy who have no formal power but still command popular loyalty. And he has backing from some prominent ethnic Mandars living in Jakarta and Ujung Pandang.
The exiles share the same
gripes: Over the last two decades, nobody of Mandar origin has served in
the national parliament. Development budgets for the three regencies are
skimpy. Roads and schools lag behind national standards. Revenue from the
area's forests and mineral reserves could fill the gap, they say, if kept
in local hands. And they dream of applying their skills to run things their
way. "We have a lot of experts," Rahmat says happily. Would he like to
be governor? "If the people choose me, no problem! But that's not my goal."
| Environment/health |
[The following is a summary translation of two reports from Siar news service posted by Down To Earth.]
The Indorayon company (PT IIU) finished the year even further in the black books of the local community after one of its trucks accidentally tipped its load of chemicals into the River Aek Mandosi in the early hours of 30th December 1998. The accident happened near the village of Parpatulaan -- around 10km from the PT IIU plant at Porsea. The truck came off the main road into ricefields irrigated by the nearby river.
The chemicals gave off a foul smell, but local people were completely prevented from approaching the accident scene by security guards. By 7am local fishfarmers from Silamosik -- 1 km from the accident scene -- who came to catch carp found dead fish floating in their rice fields and others dying. They immediately gathered up any remaining live fish. They said the irrigation water was blackish and smelt bad. Similar incidents were reported from Rianite, Siraituruk, Lumban Nabolon, Narumontak, Barumambing and Lumban Sirait as the River Aek Mandosi flows through ponds in these villages before joining the River Asahan.
By 9 am the fishfarmers were concerned about people's health since some fish may already have been sold in the market. When the contaminated fish were opened up, their stomach contents were black and the fish smelt bad. The local NGO, KSPPM, took photos and video recordings of the dead fish. Some local people complained that their well water had also turned black and it was a week before anyone dared to use the river water.
The fishfarmers took the dead fish to the local government office, where the administrator for the Porsea district immediately contacted Indorayon and ordered all contaminated fish to be removed from the local market. 3.2 tonnes of contaminated fish were confiscated and monitoring continues. One of the fishermen, Aris Butar Butar, said fish kills now amounted to around 40 tonnes. Indorayon have provided some to the villagers with Rp 40 million (around US$5,000) compensation, but local people say this is far from adequate.
Local people blockade factory
On the night of 9th January, the people of Balige blocked the main road to prevent trucks carrying logs from reaching the Indorayon factory. Their action was in protest about a shooting by the security forces who accompany the logging trucks to the pulp plant, recently re-opened so an environmental and social audit can be carried out. The main road was closed for 10 hours by obstacles including burning tyres. No action was taken by the security forces.
A local from Porsea told the reporter that the numbers of security forces (mobile brigade) escorting Indorayon trucks had been greatly increased since last November's violence. Whereas there used to be one military for each truck, now there is one pickup full of military for each truck, which suggests Indorayon may be paying them as guards.
Meanwhile a spokesperson
for the local NGO KSPPM said that 8 of the 16 people who had been held
in detention by local police since the November unrest had been released
but were not allowed to leave town. Two of them are reported to be school
pupils. Witnesses said some of those held in detention had been tortured.
It was usual for detainees to be taken to the Indorayon factory before
going to the police station. "There they are beaten up by people including
PT IIU staff". The Indorayon Case Legal Aid Team will shortly be investigating
these claims of torture. Where serious human rights violations have clearly
taken place, such as a report that someone's eyes were gouged out, these
charges will be passed on to the National Human Rights Commission.
| Arms/armed forces |
Andrew Gilligan -- The Indonesian army has admitted for the first time that it tortures people "sometimes", during an investigative "sting" by a television stand-up comedian.
Col Halim Nawi, the Indonesian defence attache to London, made the admission while attempting to hire the comedian-turned- investigative journalist, Mark Thomas, believing him to be a public relations consultant who could "turn around" the Indonesian army's "negative" image. The meeting, in London last month, was secretly filmed for broadcast on Channel 4 later this week.
Another senior officer, Major Gen Widjojo, is filmed at an arms fair telling Mr Thomas that "we did some tortures to protect the security of society. It is not widespread, but we do have to do it sometimes".
But Indonesian diplomatic sources complained strenuously last night that the two officers had been "entrapped" by the programme team. "We took them through a media training course," said Mr Thomas. "We told him that one of the best principles of PR was to admit a few of the things you're accused of, then you can deny the rest with greater credibility because it looks like you're honest. This advice was complete rubbish, of course. We had just made it up."
Gen Widjojo begins the meeting by denying all wrongdoing and denouncing Amnesty International claims of torture and human rights abuse as "fabrications". Mr Thomas, in his guise as a PR consultant, then tells the general: "If you want to hold that line, that's fine, but people will challenge it ... We're going to deal with a situation where you say torture does occur occasionally -- if you feel that is the truth. Do you feel that is the truth?" Gen Widjojo says: "Yes." Mr Thomas says: "So, then, when people watch, keep it very short, say it does happen but without it we'd lose things."
Gen Widjojo then twice in a mock TV interview agrees to make the damning admissions. Amnesty International has accused the Indonesian armed forces of complicity in hundreds of thousands of deaths, torture and kidnapping.
Diplomatic sources in Jakarta said that the programme was a "set-up". "The officers were entrapped and were co-operating with the PR company in the spirit of a game, almost," said an Indonesian spokesman. "This does not prove anything." In a later interview, Col Halim, according to the programme- makers, admits to the use of British-manufactured equipment to crush dissidents in East Timor, illegally occupied by the Indonesians since the 1970s. "He was very keen on the idea that PR could be used to improve the Army's image without any change to its practices," said Mr Thomas, who set up an entire bogus PR firm, Mackintosh Morley, complete with offices and staff for the operation.
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Watching the Indonesian military is much like watching the Soviet Kremlin of yesteryear. Obscure generals swapping positions within a labyrinthine armed forces (ABRI) bureaucracy are perennial affairs. But Indonesia watchers find it fascinating, and military chief General Wiranto obliged earlier this month by announcing a revamp of his senior command.
During the New Order, the major periodic reshuffles, or mutasi as it is known in the country, carried little real significance. They were only meaningful in terms of former president Suharto's power plays.
He liked shuffling the deck and playing "musical chairs" to keep opponents at bay and forestalling the development of any countervailing power centre. It was a successful strategy that kept him in power for 32 years.
In the new environment that is supposedly free of Mr Suharto's baleful will, Gen Wiranto is trying to fashion an ABRI to meet the challenges of the times. But what were the pressures and political demands that shaped the changes?
Ideologically, Gen Wiranto is perceived as the standard bearer of the secular-nationalist or merah-putih officers, whose loyalty is symbolised by the merah-putih or red and white colours of the Indonesian flag. It is this group which has benefited most from the latest changes. Possibly less obvious but a winner, too, was former president Suharto.
The Muslim-oriented generals and those associated with the disgraced former head of the Strategic Reserve Command and Suharto son-in-law, Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, were the main losers.
Among the 100 officers who were rotated, fewer than 10 had any real political significance. The well-regarded Christian general Johny Lumintang was made the army's deputy chief, replacing Suharto loyalist Sugiyono, who moved to the position of chief of general staff.
Lieut-Gen Sugiyono in turn replaced the Muslim-oriented Fachrul Razi who was "kicked upstairs" to the traditionally- ineffective position of secretary-general of the Defence Ministry.
Other important changes include the replacement of ABRI intelligence chief and one-time Prabowo ally, Zacky Anwar Makarim. His powerful position was taken over by Major-General Tyasno Sudarto, the Central Java commander.
The reshuffle will, on balance, increase the likelihood that the military will be managed in a less partisan and more professional way as it faces political uncertainty in the months ahead. But other interpretations are possible. The freer hand Gen Wiranto has been given in making appointments may require a quid pro quo to President B. J. Habibie.
The changes certainly consolidate Gen Wiranto's grip on the military and will, to some extent, give encouragement to the secularist-type generals who, in the last six months, have been concerned about the rising influence of the Muslims. The precarious power balance, for now, is in their favour.
Military politics and factionalism
Traditional and long-standing socio-cultural and ideological divisions are still pervasive in Indonesian politics. At issue is how much the state should give special consideration to the purest Muslims, or santris, and their interests. ABRI politics has mirrored this trend at national level.
There are two broad strands of thinking in the military top brass. The first has its adherents among officers like Lt-Gen Fachrul Razi, Maj-Gen Zacky Anwar, chief of the Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) Djamari Chaniago and staff officers Maj-Gen Kivlan Zein and Brig-Gen Adityawarman. Others include three retired generals in Cabinet -- Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs Feisal Tanjung, Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah and state intelligence chief Z. A. Maulani. They are known sometimes as the hijau or green generals.
Political scientist William Liddle of the Ohio State University in the United States argues that these men want to give Muslims their rightful place in Indonesian society. "They are Muslim modernists and concerned that a new Benny Murdani might push them out," says Prof Liddle. Gen Murdani, a Catholic, was the former Defence Minister and intelligence chief who, they allege, discriminated against Muslims. Some of these generals have formed ad-hoc links with Cabinet ministers of the Muslim modernist ilk and radical Islamic groups like Kisdi, Dewan Dakwah and the newly-formed political party Bulan Bintang. In the rival camp are the merah-putih officers or the Pancasilaists. The influence of these officers had been on a slow decline since Mr Suharto's cultivation of the Muslim ground in the '80s.
Gen Wiranto's appointment as commander last year reversed the process. They began to gain ground and ABRI's ideological compass began to move slowly to the centre after tilting to the right for some time.
The Pancasilaists include a group of intellectuals like territorial chief Bambang Yudhoyono, Governor of the National Resilience Institute Agum Gumelar, the new head of the ABRI staff and command college Agus Widjoyo and the just-named strategic and policy planning chief Agus Wirahadikusumah. They received their degrees and military training in the United States and Australia.
But intra-military rivalry does not just cleave along the religious-secular fault line. Attitudes towards reform in the post-Suharto era cuts across the Islamic and non-Islamic divide in ABRI, producing three separate camps:
Conservatives: These are officers who served under Mr Suharto at some point in their military career as his adjutant or in the elite presidential security guard unit (Pasukan Pengamanan Presiden) and are bound by an esprit de corps and a desire to maintain the political status quo. Besides Lt-Gen Sugiyono and Maj-Gen Tyasno, the group includes army chief Subagyo Hadisiswoyo and staff expert Sjafrie Sjamsuddin.
Reformers: The reformers appear to be larger in numbers. Heading the list are Pancasilaists like Lt-Gen Bambang, Lt-Gen Widjoyo and Maj-Gen Wirahadikusumah.
But they also include Muslim-oriented generals like Lt-Gen Maulani and Lt-Gen Fachrul. Both groups want gradual democratisation but under their respective ideological banners. The secularists want the Pancasila state doctrine to remain intact. The Muslim faction also wants this but with greater representation of Islamic interests in political and economic areas.
Fence-sitters: They form the silent majority. Many of them are colonels in the provinces and have poor prospects of further promotion. They are ambivalent about reform and are concerned about the potential loss of money-making opportunities, dwifungsi appointments and ABRI's general standing in society. Where does Gen Wiranto fit in the constellation of forces?
Senior ABRI sources say the 51-year-old general prides himself as being a unifier of the different groups. Three things matter most to him -- stability, hierarchy and harmony -- key elements that reflect the Javanese world view and are in synch with the thinking of his long-time mentor, Mr Suharto.
He is trying to balance factional interests. He is moving on political reform but not quickly enough for the reformers. And he is defending dwifungsi and ABRI privileges but not strongly enough for the vulnerable colonels. His political survival is very much dependent on how he manages these contradictory demands.
With the ouster of rival Lt-Gen Prabowo, there was expectation that he would be the ABRI strongman, manoeuvring different groups to suit his interests. But evidence suggests otherwise. A number of military appointments were forced on him in the weeks after Mr Suharto's fall last May.
For example, his choice of Lt-Gen Johny Lumintang as Kostrad chief was rejected by the Islamic "green" generals like Feisal Tanjung andmembers of the Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI).
They also vetoed the proposed appointment of Lt-Gen Luhut Panjaitan, another Christian, to replace Maj-Gen Muchdi as head of the Special Forces (Kopassus). He has also succumbed to pressure to use civilian-armed volunteers during the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in November.
If the balance of power in the armed forces in the last six months was veering towards the Muslim generals, that has changed now with the reshuffle. The consequences of the re-balancing could be to strengthen Gen Wiranto's hold within ABRI and it certainly would have diminished the risk of troublemakers undermining him in the way many believed Lt-Gen Prabowo had done before.
Notes an army general: "Gen Wiranto has expressed privately on a few occasions that he did not have the full support of some of his senior officers. The recent changes were in the offing for some time but he held back and did not want to be seen to be carrying out a purge."
Obviously, one significant motivation is a natural desire to put in place his own team. What we are seeing now might be thought of as Phase Two of a long-term plan to put in place the team, and at some point down the road we could even expect another round of changes. Like Mr Suharto in the mid-'60s, Gen Wiranto appears to be following the Javanese principle of alon alon asal kelakon (slow but sure) in dealing with his military rivals, though his success in doing so has been mixed and predicated largely on luck.
Another reason is one shared by ABRI and the national leadership, namely, to have in place a military that is in a position to meet the dangerous challenges of 1999. A fractious and floundering ABRI is not good for Indonesia, which is suffering bouts of political convulsions and sporadic violence.
The senior officers around him now are clearly a group that will serve him well in his role as ABRI chief. Equally, it is a team that could be supportive of him if he were to seek a political role outside the military.
In the name of the father
On the surface, it would appear that Gen Wiranto was on the offensive against the Muslim-oriented generals and Prabowo allies. But there could be another compelling reason.
Insiders say that insofar as he can, he would be inclined to protect Mr Suharto, under whom he served for five years as adjutant. His motivations are driven by a promise he made to his longtime mentor in May that the military will make sure no harm falls on him or his family.
This is the view put forward by some secularist reformers that could signal new fracture lines and tensions in the armed forces. While pleased that the Muslim elements are being weeded out, they are cautious about the reshuffle, saying that they suspect "the hidden hand of Suharto" at work.
There is no conclusive evidence of this but speculation is rife that Suhartoist, Gen Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, was due to be replaced but that this decision was overturned at the 11th hour because of "external pressures".
The feeling among reformers is that with the elevation and continued retention of Suharto loyalists, ABRI will not be able to make a break with the past and that political openness and investigation of the excesses and corruption of Mr Suharto's family may be held back.
"It is not just Muslims versus secularists here," says one army source. "It is power play and protecting the interests of Suharto, who sees the reform movement as a threat. "The conservatives are moving into the inner circle. If Wiranto were genuine about reform, then officers like Bambang Yudhoyono and other reformers would have gone up. "The secularist reformers are now in the middle. They are between the evil and the more evil. The reshuffle is one step forward and two steps backwards."
There is thus dismay among some senior officers over the continuing "filial" relationship between the nation's two most powerful men -- Dr Habibie and Gen Wiranto -- and the fallen dictator. One source described Dr Habibie and Gen Wiranto as the "twin sons of Suharto who would have a common interest in protecting him to protect themselves".
No doubt, Gen Wiranto showed the reshuffle list to his Supreme Commander, the President. A palace source said they met twice last month to discuss the matter. Dr Habibie "had no objections to Wiranto's choices", he said.
But the question is why Dr Habibie did not make changes to the list to mollify the Muslims as he has done on previous occasions last year. The answer, some generals suggest, is that there was no need for him to do so because it had already been given a "father's blessing" by Mr Suharto.
The palace source concedes that it was plausible the latter could have exercised an indirect influence on Dr Habibie and Gen Wiranto, given the emotional ties and self-interests that bind them both sometimes to take decisions in his favour.
Wiranto, Habibie dancing together?
Both president and military commander need each other. Gen Wiranto cannot afford to risk dismissal by Dr Habibie, while the President needs his military chief to ensure that no challenge emanates from ABRI.
By the end of last year, a symbiotic relationship was established, but one on the President's terms, particularly after ABRI's disastrous handling of security in Jakarta during the special session of the MPR (the People's Consultative Assembly) in November.
Three events since May -- the reversal of military appointments, the support for Dr Habibie's candidate in the Golkar congress, and the use of Muslim "volunteers" during the MPR session -- illustrate how Gen Wiranto has subordinated the military's interests to the President's.
Although ABRI had been far from enthusiastic about Dr Habibie as the nation's third president, the military leadership recognised him as the constitutional successor. Indonesia watcher Harold Crouch of the Australian National University argues that Gen Wiranto's acquiescence to the President's authority gives an indication of "new thinking" within ABRI.
Members of his inner circle regard some retired generals as locked in the past in their belief that the military could simply step in and take over the government. "Gen Wiranto was unwilling to risk the political upheaval that would have accompanied any attempt by ABRI to regain its dominant position. He had little choice, therefore, but to accept Dr Habibie's orders," said Dr Crouch. But the relationship was not entirely one-sided, he said. The President could count on Gen Wiranto's support only up to a certain point.
Dr Habibie seems to be aware that he could not afford to meet all the demands of his Muslim supporters without risking the alienation of ABRI. He thus refused to countenance inquiries into the massacres of Muslims in Lampung and Tanjung Priok in the '80s. He was also unwilling to release all Muslim prisoners convicted during the New Order period.
The Muslim-oriented generals could have lost out in the reshuffle given the President's possible calculation that his political standing might have been damaged by the ambitions of his Muslim supporters.
Ministerial and palace sources say that Dr Habibie is trying to distance himself from the Muslim modernist groups that he cultivated in the '90s as part of his strategy to build up his power base. He has become more centrist and moderate in his views as a result of his vulnerability.
A minister tells Sunday Review that the horrors of the church and mosque burnings in November were an "eye opener for him". During a Cabinet meeting with several security ministers, he pledged that Indonesia would never become an Islamic state. He had even indicated privately to some ministers that the Muslim radicals might have gone too far in their attempts to bring about change.
With the reshuffle, it is highly probable that the balance between Gen Wiranto and Dr Habibie has reached a more even keel, though the President still holds the initiative.
The relationship will be tested further as the general election looms in the background. The President will require the support of both Golkar and ABRI at the very minimum to safeguard his political lifeline and be elected.
On both counts, he will need the blessing of Gen Wiranto to ensure that he gets the backing. It is conceivable that the closer the elections, the more likely Dr Habibie will seek to strengthen his relationship with his military commander.
His comments made during recent Cabinet meetings that Gen Wiranto was "ABRI's best CEO" were not made in ignorance of their political significance. In the next six months, this could mean acceding even more to the general's request for further changes in the military command that could see the rise of more Pancasilaist officers.
For ABRI's part, it will need to be cautious about responding to Dr Habibie's wooing. On paper and in rhetoric, it claims to be above politics and non-partisan. It will not seek to influence the outcome of the elections. But the experience of the Golkar congress shows that when push comes to shove, senior ABRI officers will back outcomes that suit their political interests.
By November this year, Gen Wiranto would have worked with Dr Habibie for nearly 18 months. That relationship would have become comfortable. In this situation, the loyal and Constitution- abiding general may think twice before abandoning his political ally and making a leap into the dark with an untested new president.
But there are no permanent friends in politics, however. Only permanent interests. Gen Wiranto may have few choices, if Golkar is trounced at the polls and Dr Habibie fails to muster support from other forces in the new MPR.
Either way, it is probable that with the passage of time, Gen Wiranto's own position could become more secure while the President's becomes increasingly insecure. The general might not become the king but he could be the kingmaker.
ABRI: dangers from within
Indonesian history has shown that intra-military rivalry has tended to find expression through blood-letting on the streets. The May riots, the country's worst in 30 years, were a dramatic example of what could go wrong.
ABRI is not united despite the reshuffle. Alliances are still fluid. The "green" generals have taken a beating this round but they are by no means obliterated. If political circumstances change and Dr Habibie vacillates, they could make a comeback. A presidential aide says that Gen Wiranto's biggest challenge in the next few months would be to "neutralise" this group before "it strikes back in the field with the help of its civilian counterparts".
Cutting across factional divides are pressures within the ABRI institution -- the air force, navy and police services -- for greater independence from the all-powerful army. Ultimately, the way in which the military manages its internal divisions will be the major influence on political and social stability in Indonesia. Ironically, it may take a serious threat to the unity of this distended and diverse archipelago to bring ABRI together.