[indo_chaos] [GSJ] FEER Cover Story on Indon: Dazed and Confused
Admin GSJ
November 26, 1998
Cover story:
Indonesia: Dazed and Confused
Renewed violence on the streets of Jakarta has sent the reform battle into
dangerous new ground. Both the government and student protesters have turned
to old ways in their mutual mistrust of the uneasy present.
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By John McBeth and Michael Vatikiotis in Jakarta
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It's a framed, official portrait of B.J. Habibie, the president who says he's
steering Indonesia towards democracy. But for students gathered on a Jakarta
campus, raked hours earlier by soldiers' bullets, it's an object of fury. The
students, some still wearing the wet bandannas they had used to ward off tear
gas, hold the picture upside down. The eyes are scratched out. "Hang Habibie,"
they scream.
The scene reflects the level of emotion in the early hours of November 14. The
previous evening, at least 16 people died when students demanding a new
government and an end to military involvement in politics fought pitched
battles with soldiers and police in the centre of Jakarta. The violence
erupted as a special session of the 1,000-member People's Consultative
Assembly met to establish a legal framework for political reform.
The convulsions of the past week have exposed the deep divide between a young
generation distrustful of the country's leaders and eager for immediate
change, and a political elite instinctively clinging to the status quo, or, at
most, formulas for a measured transition. Moreover, the violence has
threatened the country's reform process by reanimating the heavy hand of
authoritarianism and strengthening the appeal of some traditional
institutions.
Indeed, the main protagonists appear to be lost in a time warp. The students'
uncompromising demands for Habibie to step down show a desperate desire for a
complete break with history. Yet the two people who emerged as power-brokers
acceptable to the reformers are very much associated with enduring Indonesian
traditions: They are the ailing and near-blind leader of the country's largest
Muslim organization and the hereditary sultan of Yogyakarta.
Habibie, too, reached for some of the clumsy political tools of Indonesia's
undemocratic past. In nationally televised statements, he insisted that the
student protests had been manipulated by "anarchist" groups, and ordered a
police round-up of prominent opposition leaders for questioning. Says a senior
presidential aide: "We need to separate the students from the riff-raff."
The young people who make up Indonesia's student movement, and who played the
key role in bringing down President Suharto in May, are as much victims of the
Suharto era as the so-called "floating mass"--the millions of Indonesians who
were denied an active part in political life for more than three decades. But
they also ignore the need for political compromise, so necessary if Indonesia
is to emerge from this period of reform with its social fabric and economy
intact. (See story on page 16.) Political scientist Arief Budiman says the
students are fighting for freedom from the past, not freedom to build a
future.
The events of mid-November don't augur well for political stability. Although
the assembly meeting laid out a rough road map for modest democratic reform,
the prospect of further violent protests threatens the process. It's a
reminder that the legacy of Suharto's long rule still weighs heavily on the
political landscape. "We're moving in a daze," says former Environment
Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a harsh critic of Habibie. "It's like someone
emerging into the daylight after being in a long, dark tunnel. If you tell
them what it's really like to live in the daylight, they don't like you."
The fallout isn't just political. Business confidence, which the government
has been desperately trying to recapture since Suharto's fall, took a hard
knock from the images of chaos in the heart of Jakarta's financial district.
Confidence had been slowly returning, with a stronger rupiah and calm streets
nudging opinions in the right direction. Now, the uncertainty is back and an
outbreak of looting and burning in north Jakarta demonstrated once again that
Indonesia's ethnic Chinese remain at risk.
"We had the first embryonic sense that things were moderating and that the
political transition might be smooth," says a Jakarta banker. "Now we've had
more violence and attacks on Chinese shops. Anybody who thought we've seen the
worst has changed their mind."
It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. The November 10-13 assembly session
was called to prepare the ground for elections in mid-1999 and show the
political will to reform. The student activists opposed the assembly,
dismissing its members as remnants of a discredited era. They viewed the
institution as illegitimate, and its appointment of Habibie to replace Suharto
as invalid. Although demonstrations were expected, the armed forces left the
security plan to the police in an experiment to determine their ability to
perform independently.
Initially everything went according to plan, with security forces slowly
pulling back in a careful, 20-phase operation that was supposed to end at
parliament's gates long after the assembly was due to end. But after five
phases, something went terribly wrong. Sources familiar with the sequence of
events say that instead of continuing to fall back, a military-police colonel
ordered his men to open fire on students inside the Atma Jaya campus.
Witnesses at the parliament command post say chaos ensued when shooting
erupted, with the tactical commander shouting: "Why did he give the order to
attack?"
The sources are unable to explain why the colonel disobeyed standing
instructions. But with security forces firing blanks and plastic bullets into
the university at close range, fatalities were almost inevitable. At 50
metres, plastic rounds bruise or break the skin. At 15-20 metres, they can be
lethal.
Gunfire and exploding tear gas canisters echoed along the high-rise glass and
concrete buildings lining Sudirman Road, the city's main thoroughfare. From
mid-afternoon, students repeatedly advanced on the line of troops, which was
backed by armoured cars with water cannon. When one student fell with a leg
wound, the spot where he dropped was immediately occupied by three others who
sat on the ground and screamed defiantly at the soldiers. An office worker
watching from a safe distance remarked: "These students are brave, much braver
than I can ever be." Bystanders banged roadside railings in noisy support.
Indeed, sympathy for the students from the corporate community and public at
large was evident the day after the November 13 shootings, which claimed the
lives of eight students and eight others. "I came here to support the
students," said a manager at an international beverage company. He described
how employees of many companies from his office building across the street
from Atma Jaya University had donated cash and supplies. "We gave food and the
students gave us a list of what they need--oxygen and antiseptics. This is
real people's power; what we saw in May was just a game."
If it was, members of the consultative assembly seemed oblivious to what was
going on barely a kilometre away. But hours later, Marzuki Darusman, deputy
chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, received a stinging
reminder of just how much the students have rejected establishment politics
when he led a group of delegates to Atma Jaya University. As Marzuki was shown
discarded tear-gas canisters and brass shell casings, he was confronted by a
student, his eyes wild with emotion. "Where were you when we were fighting the
soldiers with our hands? Our friends have been killed while you sat in the
MPR," he screamed at Marzuki, who is a senior official of the ruling Golkar
party. "Habibie must be hanged. Golkar are dogs," screamed another student.
Marzuki's group beat a hasty retreat.
The special session of Indonesia's highest legislative body was never going to
achieve reform at a single stroke, but in this charged atmosphere it appeared
to fall well short of what most expected. Granted, the legislators passed
resolutions limiting the presidency to two five-year terms and scrapping
emergency powers Suharto obtained in his final months in office. But despite
popular demands for the armed forces to end their role in politics, the
assembly only went as far as calling for a gradual reduction in the number of
military appointees in the House of Representatives.
The armed-forces commander, Gen. Wiranto, finds himself squarely in the
middle, criticized on the one hand for selling the military out and on the
other by officers who are ready to accept reform but are frustrated over his
indecisiveness and lack of direction. A key figure in the Habibie government,
Wiranto has also had to contend with cabinet machinations. The day after the
Atma Jaya shootings, Muslim Cabinet ministers--riding a wave of public
criticism--sought to have him removed. Habibie, however, heeded the advice of
a senior aide, Lt.-Gen. Sinthong Panjaitan, who after sounding out several key
generals, warned him it might look like "regime-building."
It's not clear whose advice Habibie took before ordering a round-up of several
retired generals and opposition figures in the wake of the violence. Many
analysts say the crackdown points to a wider power struggle between Habibie
and his Islamic allies and former leaders committed to ensuring that Indonesia
remains a secular state. Some detect a deliberate strategy by Habibie to
divide secular opposition parties. "He's helping to create an ideological
split," says Sarwono, the former environment minister. "It is now wider and
much clearer."
With Habibie relying ever more on the security forces to protect his back, and
the military's public standing severely damaged, the government is beginning
to look as isolated from the people as Suharto's regime did in its final
months. Politicians and students alike have started casting around for new
leaders, but there are very few candidates in a field full of discredited
members of the elite.
Amien Rais, leader of the National Mandate Party, who developed a strong
popular following last May by calling for Suharto to resign, seemed reluctant
to support the students. During the May crisis, popular Indonesian Democratic
Party leader Megawati Sukarnoputri was conspicuous by her absence. This time,
people urging her to appear at Atma Jaya found her asleep at home, the news
magazine Tempo reported. "What? A presidential candidate can't be woken while
her people are being shot?" activist Ratna Sarumpaet was quoted as saying.
As the numerical majority, the Javanese favour the youthful Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta--the son of a former vice-president--who says
his destiny as a national leader stems from supernatural forces. Indonesia's
non-Muslims look to Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the influential Islamic
organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, who has been a consistent champion of the
secular state.
But the bedridden Wahid, who's recovering from a near-fatal stroke, is hardly
the man to lead Indonesia out of its agony.
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