Indonesia:
Military clique manoeuvres to retain power

by Rob Gowland

As mass pressure for democratic reforms grows in Indonesia, the Government 
of Prime Minister B J Habibie is attempting to prolong the dictatorial and 
financial powers of the military clique that flourished under the Suharto 
regime.

Meanwhile the economy is continuing to deteriorate dramatically.

A third of all electronics, machine and chemical enterprises have had to 
shut down, "temporarily".

Mass layoffs are endemic — 20 million people have lost their jobs — and 
nearly 50 million are encountering difficulty in getting sufficient food as 
prices for basics like rice and fuel go through the roof.

Daily demonstrations by students, workers and urban poor have become the 
norm, and the political upheaval has spread right across the country.

The demonstrators' basic demands include an end to any role for the 
military in politics, rejection of the Suharto-era hangover the People's 
Consultative Assembly (a bogus "parliament") and the formation of a 
transitional government to organise free elections.

Habibie has announced new elections in mid-1999 in an effort to quell 
public anger at the lack of real political change, but it is clear the 
ruling clique want the elections to be merely cosmetic.

More than 100 political parties have sprung up since the overthrow of 
Suharto, but the Government is trying to prevent parties which do not have 
offices in at least half the districts of this vast country of 202 million 
from standing candidates. 

Students from 14 Indonesian universities have already launched a watchdog 
body — the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (UNFREL) — to 
monitor next year's elections.

At the same time, various military, political and business factions both 
inside and outside Indonesia are jockeying and scheming to retain or 
obtain power in this, the world's fourth most populous country.

Imperialist corporations and governments have been trying for some time to 
force the country to accept unrestricted access for transnational 
corporations.

The reluctance of Suharto and his cronies to give up their economic control 
and resultant wealth to foreign corporations cost Suharto imperialist 
support last May and lost him the Presidency. Now his own party is calling 
for his impeachment.

Nevertheless, Suharto still has immense wealth and power and the Suharto 
interests will be one of those currently working to divert the popular 
movement from its democratic goals.

Rival factions within the military are also tussling for control of the 
regime. The military — or sections of it — are widely believed to be 
behind the eruption of racist and religious violence, particularly by 
Islamic groups, that has most recently bedevilled the popular movement.

In Jakarta on November 13 there were three separate incidents of military 
shootings that left 15 people dead and 300 wounded.

These shootings, it was claimed, were ordered by Army Chief General 
Wiranto. They provoked an outpouring of popular hatred against the regime. 
For two days, masses of people ransacked stores and wealthy homes.

Protests erupted in 16 cities on virtually every major island of the 
archipelago. Students even took over airports in Sulawesi and Medan. The 
demonstrators demanded Wiranto's resignation.

But it seems the shootings and the resultant arson attacks and racist rapes 
and looting could have been orchestrated attempts to discredit Wiranto from 
within the military and the Government.

In an extraordinary statement to the foreign press on the shootings, 
Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono said on November 20 that 
"there are rogue elements within the military who are interested in further 
discrediting the current Defence Minister General Wiranto".

Juwono did not identify the "rogue elements within the military" but he 
said that attempts to discredit Wiranto were part of "the power struggle up 
in the top echelons of the Government".

Wiranto himself claimed that forensic evidence showed that a bullet 
recovered from the body of one of the victims of the November 13 shooting 
was of a type not used by the Indonesian military, suggesting the 
involvement of provocateurs.

General Wiranto denies any division within the military or the Government, 
but his standing has certainly suffered since November 13. At the same 
time, other observers suggest that Wiranto himself may be encouraging the 
civil strife in order to justify a military coup to "restore order".

The Government mobilised 125,000 right-wing Islamic youths as a "civilian 
militia" to confront last month's demonstrators. They were withdrawn 
because of strong public opposition (four militia members were lynched).

They almost certainly were the same youths who were trucked into the 
capital, some from as far away as West Java, on November 23 who then went 
on a rampage against Christians, killing 14 and burning churches.

Opposition leader Abdurrahman Wahid, the chairman of the 30-million strong 
Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim group, said afterwards that 
"unnamed parties" are exploiting religious sensitivities to stir up unrest 
in Indonesia but declined to name the suspects.

After meeting fellow opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, Wahid said 
they both agreed the Islamic attacks were not spontaneous but were 
"arranged by hoodlums who bow to one person". He did not name the person.

Another opposition figure, Amien Rais, a leader of the second biggest 
Islamic organisation in Indonesia, is believed to have presidential 
ambitions. He has formed the National Mandate Party (PAN). He specifically 
called on members of his party not to participate in last month's student-
worker demonstrations.

Despite Rais, the solidarity between students, workers and the urban poor, 
combined with increased organisation and militancy, represents a real 
threat to the regime.

Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid has warned of "mass riots" if political 
parties are allowed to hold rallies during next June's elections.

The Government has released plans to form a new 12,000-strong civilian 
militia to "quell riots" during the election period and to act as military 
informants.

The blatant manipulation of popular unrest by means of so-called "black 
politics" — discrediting certain leaders, spreading rumours, diverting 
anger into racist or sectarian avenues, organising private militias, using 
agents provocateurs to incite violence or even kill to provide 
"victims" — whoever is behind it, it is intended to blunt or divide the 
popular movement for democracy and change in Indonesia.

While various political figures and observers ascribe responsibility for 
the recent violence to different Indonesian leaders and factions, another 
sinister hand may also be at work in stirring up hostility between 
Christians and Muslims: it would certainly not dismay US imperialism if 
Indonesia became Asia's Bosnia-Herzegovina, to be broken up into smaller 
statelets as was successfully carried out on the territory of the former 
Yugoslavia.