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ETAN Statement
on 2014 Indonesian Election
(July 10)
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East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network (ETAN)
ELECTION BACKGROUNDER
Indonesia’s Militarized Democracy:
Candidates bring proven records of violating
human rights
Contents
About ETAN
March 2014
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Although
Indonesia has made strides toward consolidating
its democracy, some of its leading presidential
and vice-presidential candidates continue
to have deeply troubling backgrounds of
gross human rights violations. This report
provides a brief background on Indonesian
democratization and examines some of the
contenders for the nation’s highest political
offices.
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Indonesian
voters. Photo
byNatalia Warat/Asia Foundation |
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Indonesia is in the midst of an election
campaign. On April 9 voters will elect members
to the national and regional legislatures.
Once that election is completed Indonesia
will hold its third presidential election
following its transition to democracy after
32 years of military dictatorship. Candidates
for the July 9 presidential election will
be determined in part by the election for
the People's Representative Council (Dewan
Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR). A presidential
ticket must be supported by a party or coalition
of parties with at least 25 percent of the
vote or 20 percent of the seats in the DPR
election. While many parties have announced
their favored candidates, only two – Golkar
and PDI-P – out of
12 registered national parties are thought
to have a chance at passing the threshold.
The final determination of candidates will
occur after the official DPR results, scheduled
to be released on May 7, when coalitions
of parties may form to put together tickets.
The presidential and vice-presidential candidates
have often come from
different parties.
Current president and former general Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is completing his
second term and is barred by term limits
from running again. For months potential
candidates have been jockeying for support
– from both the general population and from
political parties. Below, we briefly examine
some worrisome candidates, based on their
human rights and military records.
Indonesian
Democracy
and
Democratization
Democratization is a process. When Suharto
was forced from office in May 1998, Indonesia
did not democratize overnight. In fact,
it took a year for the first
nationally contested election, which
eventually brought the Muslim
intellectual Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly
known as Gus Dur, to the presidency.
Today, most Indonesian political parties
are personality-based, with limited platforms.
Parties with major media owners behind them
are thought to have an advantage and in
some areas politics is a family business.
Corruption accusations and convictions have
affected the popularity of several political
parties, including SBY’s Democratic Party
(Partai Demokrat, PD) and the Islamic Prosperous
Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS).
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Elections do not make a democracy
- elections were regularly held
during the Suharto period, albeit
with little competition and highly
predictable results.
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And elections do not make a democracy -
elections were regularly held during the
Suharto period, albeit with little
competition and highly predictable
results. And while
elections in Indonesia are now more open
than before, they are merely the most superficial
aspect of democracy.
Meaningful
democracy includes more than electoral competition.
Government should be responsive to people’s
needs and not just the demands of elites.
It should work to ensure equality of opportunity,
minimum social guarantees for the population,
freedom from entrenched corruption in the
economic, political and legal spheres, the
elimination of military influence in politics
and the economy, an end to racism and religious
persecution, and the respect of basic human
rights for Indonesia’s marginalized populations.
Yes, democratization is chugging along in
Indonesia, but when one views the plight
of indigenous West Papuans and the ongoing
impunity of the security forces it is impossible
to think of Indonesia as a mature, consolidated
democracy.
Indonesia has come a long way since 1999.
Timor-Leste is now independent, Indonesia’s
press is much freer, a nervous peace hangs
over Aceh, and some politicians, judges
and business owners have been tried for
corruption. Under President SBY, however,
religious and ethnic tensions have risen,
notably against Indonesia’s Shiite, Ahmadi,
and Christian populations. Repression continues
in West Papua. Local legislatures across
Indonesia have passed discriminatory laws.
Thugs and gangsters from groups such as
the Islamic Defenders Front have provoked
and intimidated minorities, and have literally
gotten away with murder. Military reform
has stalled and even modest efforts to address
past violations of human rights have gone
nowhere.
Indonesia has a long and firm
history of military-trained national leaders.
Since Sukarno, only three Indonesian presidents,
who governed for a combined total of six
years, have not been in the military. Although
having an ex-military president does not
necessarily mean hostility toward democracy,
those who served during the
dictator General Suharto's
New Order period of 1965-1998 became acculturated
to a system in which the military was granted
tremendous political, economic and military
power. Gus Dur’s attempts to check this
power was one of the reasons that his presidency
failed, and many in the military remain
disgruntled with any moves to disengage
them from politics and the economy.
Where Indonesia will be in another five
years – the length of a presidential term
– is difficult to predict. But for those
interested in human rights and democracy,
it is all too easy to envision a rollback
of positive reforms under the wrong president.
That some of the men described below are
serious candidates for Indonesia’s highest
office (and that many others with highly
tainted records play powerful roles in most
Indonesian political parties), speaks to
the country’s failure to confront the violations of human rights on which they
built their careers. This lack of justice
and accountability will only reinforce the
sense of impunity that pervades Indonesia
and undermines its democracy.
Below are potential candidates for
president with deeply troubling human
rights records. Disturbingly, their violations
are viewed positively by some, as signs
of toughness. While their
records have been questioned at times during
their political campaigns, they deserve
constant attention and deeper investigation
as Indonesians go to the polls.
Prabowo
Subianto
 Prabowo
spent much of his military career in Indonesia’s
notorious
Kopassus special forces, becoming its
commander from 1995-1998. He now leads the
Great Indonesia Movement Party (Partai Gerakan
Indonesia Raya, Gerindra Party), which is
largely funded by his millionaire brother.
Prabowo had close ties to Suharto during
the New Order (he married and has a son
with Suharto’s daughter Titiek). He
received military training in the U.S.
The Washington Post reported in 1998
that his "ties to the U.S. military are
the closest of any among the U.S.-trained
officer corps." Former U.S. Ambassador to
Indonesia
Robert Gelbard described Prabowo as
“somebody who is perhaps the greatest violator
of human rights in contemporary times among
the Indonesian military. His deeds in the
late 1990s before democracy took hold, were
shocking, even by TNI standards.”
Prabowo served several tours in Timor-Leste,
where he “developed his reputation as the
military's most ruthless field commander”
(Joseph Nevins, A Not-So Distant Horror,
Mass Violence in East Timor, Cornell
University Press, 2005:
61). Among other
actions he was involved in the 1978 capture
of Fretilin leader Nicolau Lobato, who was
shot and killed while in custody. In the
1990s, he organized gangs of hooded killers
known as “ninjas” and the Tim Alfa militia
in Los Palos to terrorize and cow the population.
Prabowo
is also accused of being involved in
the September 1983 Kraras massacre, where
more than 300 people were killed by Indonesian
soldiers, and several East Timorese have
accused Prabowo of torturing them. Prabowo
denies involvement. Release of Prabowo’s
complete military records, including his
and his troops
locations on particular dates, would clarify
his role.
In 1996, Prabowo led a team to secure the
release of environmental researchers taken
hostage by West Papuan guerrillas. He aborted
a planned Red Cross supervised release of
the hostages to prevent his
sister-in-law from getting credit.
According to Ed McWilliams, a former
U.S. diplomat, “The aborted hostage transfer
led to a brutal campaign of reprisal attacks
by the Indonesian military (largely Kopassus)
against highland villages.” This campaign
began with an assault from “an Indonesian
military helicopter disguised to look like
the helicopter that ICRC mediators had been
using” in violation of well-established
international humanitarian law.
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I am a retired lieutenant general
who once attempted to overthrow a
president. But I failed to do it,
and I regret that I failed. -
Prabowo
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As the tumult associated with the East Asian
economic crisis in 1997-98 threatened the
political legitimacy of the Suharto regime,
Prabowo spearheaded campaigns to kidnap,
arrest, intimidate and torture student activists.
Protesting students at Trisakti
University were killed and wounded by
military snipers.
Prabowo has acknowledged his role in the
kidnappings, but has
said his “conscience is clear.” Convicted
by a court of honor for “exceeding orders,”
Prabowo was forced to retire.
He is also accused of having a central role
in sparking the May 14, 1998 anti-Chinese
riots in Jakarta and other major urban areas.
At the time, Prabowo was head of the Kostrad
(the Army Strategic Reserve) based in the
capital. In 2003, the National Commission
on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
accused Prabowo of responsibility
“for gross human rights violations that
occurred during the extensive rioting in
Jakarta in 1998.” The Komnas HAM
report said
that “security authorities at that time
failed to curb the widespread riots that
took place simultaneously.” The spread of
the riots was a result of a specific policy
based on the “similar pattern at almost
all places where the riots took place, which
began with provocation, followed by an attack
on civilians.”
Shortly before Suharto resigned, Prabowo,
backed by armed men, confronted the Army
Chief of Staff Gen. Subagio at his home.
The next morning Prabowo was removed as Kostrad
commander. Later that day, B.J. Habibie
succeeded Suharto as president, and Prabowo
demanded command of the military. On May
22, he
deployed troops around the presidential
palace. Prabowo
reportedly, “took his demotion badly
– at one point strapping on a sidearm,
summoning several truckloads of troops
and confronting guards at the
presidential palace as he tried to win
an audience” with Habibie. Soon after he
was forced to resign from the military.
In a speech in late 2012
he said, "I am a retired lieutenant
general who once attempted to overthrow
a president. But I failed to do it, and
I regret that I failed."
Recently, while campaigning in Aceh,
Prabowo
offered a vague apology for unnamed
actions his troops took there.
Prabowo was the first person
denied entry into the United States
in 2000 under the UN Convention against
Torture.
After leaving the military Prabowo went
into business and has tried to remake himself
as a populist, becoming president of the
Indonesian Farmers’ Association (HKTI) in
2004, while often arguing that Indonesia
needed a strong, guiding hand - his. The same year, he tried unsuccessfully
to become the Golkar (Suharto’s New Order
party) nominee for President. In 2009 he
was Megawati Sukarnoputri’s vice-presidential
candidate (a PDI-P/Gerindra split ticket).
Until recently, Prabowo led most opinion
polls of declared candidates for President.
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who
officially entered the race in mid-March
as the PDI-P candidate, is the current favorite.
See also
Allan Nairn on
Prabowo
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Prabowo, Part 3: The NSA, Militia
Terror, Aceh, Servants, and "Slaves"
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Breaking News:
Indonesian Special Forces, Intelligence,
in Covert Operation to Influence
Election;
Bahasa Indonesia:
Operasi Rahasia Kopassus dan BIN Untuk
Mempengaruhi Hasil Pemilu
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Prabowo, Part 2: "I was the Americans'
fair-haired boy."
The Nationalist General and the United
States by Allan NairnPrabowo, Bagian 2: “Saya anak kesayangan
Amerika.”
Sang Jenderal Nasionalis dan Amerika
Serikat.
- Part
1: "Do I have the guts,"
Prabowo asked, "am I ready to be called
a fascist dictator?"Bahasa Indonesia:
"Apa saya cukup punya nyali," tanya
Prabowo, "apa saya siap jika disebut
'diktator fasis'?
Wiranto
Wiranto
is another general with deep ties to Suharto’s
New Order regime. He served as Suharto’s
Aide de Camp from 1989-1993. In February
1998, while Indonesia was in the throes
of financial and political crisis, Suharto
named him commander of the Armed Forces
of Indonesia and a month later he was given
the portfolio of Minister of Defense and
Security. Although viewed as a reformer
for his outward support for reducing the
military’s role in politics, he nonetheless
bears responsibility as commander in the deaths
of protesters at the hands of the military
in Jakarta during the May 1998 tumult. Wiranto
was implicated for rights violations in
the
2003 Komnas HAM
report on the anti-Chinese riots in 1998.
As head of the military, there is no doubt
that he was aware – if not involved in the
planning – of the scorched earth campaign
unleashed on the East Timorese following
their vote for independence in 1999. In
February 2003, the UN-backed Serious Crimes
Unit indicted Wiranto
charging him
“with
Crimes Against Humanity for Murder, Deportation
and Persecution in that these crimes were
all undertaken as part of a widespread or
systematic attack directed against the civilian
population of East Timor and specifically
targeted those who were believed to be supporters
of independence for East Timor.” For reason
of realpolitik the government of
Timor-Leste has never followed up on the
indictment.
Wiranto recently
told Al Jazeera
“that he followed state policies [in Timor-Leste]
and that President Habibie was responsible
for those. Habibie rubbishes his claims
and says there are no facts to suggest he
instructed Wiranto and his soldiers to kill.”
He served briefly as Coordinating Minister
of Politics and Security under President
Wahid, but was soon dismissed. Wiranto ran
as Golkar’s vice-presidential candidate
in 1999, Golkar’s presidential candidate
in 2004, and as the party's vice presidential
candidate in 2009.
In 2006 Wiranto established the People’s
Conscience Party (Partai Hati Nurani Rakyat,
Hanura Party), which earned 17 seats on
3.77% of the vote in the last national parliamentary
elections.
See also
Djoko
Santoso
Djoko
Santoso headed the Indonesian military from
2007- 2010 but is less well known than the
above two generals. Some Indonesians view
him as free from the taint of crimes against
humanity (which is setting the bar very
low for electability). He served during
Operasi Seroja, the invasion and occupation
of Timor-Leste, however. He was also put
in charge of the Moluccas region in 2003
in the aftermath of the sectarian violence
there. He
supported censoring
the Australian film Balibo that depicts
the Indonesian military’s murder of foreign
journalists during the beginning of the
invasion of Timor-Leste in 1975. In June
2013 he expressed interest in running for
President. At the time, he said he was considering
running in the Democratic Party’s convention,
which will be held after the parliamentary
elections.
Pramono Edhie
Wibowo
Lieutenant
General (ret.) Pramono Edhie Wibowo is
SBY’s brother-in-law. He was Indonesian
Army Chief of Staff from mid-2011 to May
2013, and is the former head of Kostrad,
the Army Strategic Reserve Command. His
relationship to SBY fueled accusations
of nepotism after his appointment, and
some questioned whether it was a ploy to
shore up SBY’s relationship with the
Indonesian military. Human rights groups
such as Imparsial
have questioned his
human rights record.
Pramono was in Timor Leste in 1999 as head
of Kopassus’ “anti-terrorism” unit. According
to
Masters of Terror,
following the referendum on independence
his unit “slipped into Dili on 5 September
1999, the day before Bishop Belo’s house
was attacked.” The Indonesian government’s
Commission for Human Rights Violations in
East Timor
(KPP-HAM) included him on a list of suspects
warranting further investigation for their
roles in the 1999 violence.
He is running
for the Democratic Party nomination. Despite
his high profile military appointments,
he is not especially well-known or popular.
Pramono’s father,
Sarwo Edhie Wibowo,
was commander of Indonesia’s Special Forces
during the
1965/66 mass killings
and arrests which followed Suharto’s seizure
of power. SBY has generated controversy
by recommending that his father-in-law receive
the official title of “National Hero of
Indonesia.” The bar for that honor is low,
as it includes, for example, military men
who committed terrorist acts against civilians
in Singapore and who were executed for their
crime.
Endriartono
Sutarto
Endriartono
Sutarto is also a former TNI Chief
(2002-2006), as well as former Army
Chief of Staff. During the 1999 period,
he was the Assistant to the Chief of
Staff of the Armed Forces, a key place
in the chain of command, and he
therefore had intimate knowledge of the
Indonesian military’s plans for the
Timor-Leste.
He repeatedly made excuses for violence
by the military and its militia before and after the
1999 referendum. In an
October 2000 interview,
Sutarto said: “It is in the psychology of
our soldiers, because, for so long, they’ve
had links, to work together [with the militias]
to secure East Timor as part of Indonesia.”
According
Masters of Terror,
“In August 1999 Gen Wiranto ordered him
to prepare a contingency plan in the event
of East Timor voting for independence.”
That plan “foresaw with considerable accuracy
the level of destruction and chaos unleashed
after the announcement of the result.” The
plan also “provided a detailed outline of
an evacuation operation and the logistics
required. The code word ‘rise’ (terbit)
was to signal the start of the operation,
and ‘sink’ (tenggelam) its end.” Hundreds
of thousands of East Timorese were forced
into West Timor in the immediate aftermath
of the independence vote.
As a young officer, he was involved in Operation
Seroja and in operations in West Papua.
He received training in the U.S. and UK.
He has been implicated in the kidnapping
and murder of Indonesian labor activist
Marsinah
in 1993. He pushed
for martial law and a greater military
role both in Aceh and in Maluku. While
he was TNI chief, martial law was
imposed on Aceh in 2003, after militia
backed by the military undermined a
ceasefire.
Although Sutarto joined the National Democratic
Party (Partai Nasional Demokrat, Partai
Nasdem) in 2012, he is competing to become
the nominee of the Democratic Party.
See also
Djoko
Suyanto
Air
Chief Marshall Djoko Suyanto was the first
air force officer to serve as Commander-in-Chief
of the Indonesian military (2006-07). He
has served as Coordinating Minister for
Legal, Political and Security Affairs since
October 2009. Unlike other presidential
hopefuls, he has not resigned from his position,
indicating that he is no longer seriously
contemplating a run. He has expressed interest,
however, in becoming the vice presidential
running mate of PDI-P’s Joko Wibowo. He
received military training in the U.S. and
Australia. He has been a fierce critic of
rights supporters in West Papua, including
the official government human rights body
Komnas Ham and KontraS, a leading NGO. He
has denied there are political prisoners
in Papua,
saying that
they are “only criminals who have broken
the law.”
Djoko has also defended the mass killings
in 1965, criticizing
the report of Komnas HAM
that the 1965 purge was a gross human rights
violation. “Define gross human rights violation!
Against whom? What if it happened the other
way around?”
Djoko said in 2012.
“This country would not be what it is today
if it didn’t happen. Of course there were
victims [during the purge], and we are investigating
them,” Djoko added. Paradoxically, in
a speech in Singapore
in December 2012, Djoko warned that Indonesia
did not need a “strongman” with a military
background as president, and he dismissed
polls that suggested former military officers
would do well in 2014: “We must look to
the future and not be tempted to look back
to the past,” he said.
Dino
Patti Djalal does not have a military background
but has defended gross violations of human
rights. A diplomat through most of his career,
he was most recently Indonesia’s ambassador
to the U.S. and prior to that SBY’s spokesperson.
While defending the Indonesian security
forces in East Timor (now independent Timor-Leste)
during the Suharto years,
he would often attack human rights investigators
and organizations. He sought to portray
the violence there as civil conflict among
East Timorese, rather than from repression
of resistance to Indonesia’s illegal and
brutal occupation. In 1999, during and after
the UN-organized vote, Djalal was based
in Timor-Leste as the spokesperson for the
Satgas P3TT (the Indonesian “Task Force
for Popular Consultation in East Timor”).
As Task Force spokesman, Djalal took the
lead in leveling false accusations against
UNAMET (UN Assistance Mission for East Timor).
As ambassador to the U.S., Djalal was key
in arranging the
controversial awarding of Statesman of the Year to SBY by the Appeal to Conscience Foundation.
The foundation says that it works “on behalf
of religious freedom and human rights throughout
the world” and “promotes peace, tolerance
and ethnic conflict resolution.” Many in
Indonesia and abroad said that President
Yudhoyono is
unworthy of the award.
During his time in office, religious intolerance
grew and his government established an unprecedented
discriminatory legal infrastructure.
Djalal is seeking the nomination of the
Democratic Party.
Sutiyoso
Retired
Lieutenant General Sutiyoso is the chair
of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party
(Partai Keadilan dan Persatuan Indonesia,
PKPI),
a party
founded in 1999 by a group of retired
senior Indonesian army officers from the
Suharto period. He is the former
Governor of Jakarta. While he is not
running for president, he has expressed
interest in running for vice president
with PDI-P’s Jokowi. He received
training from the U.S., Australia and
UK.
Sutiyoso was a captain in 1975 and part
of the Indonesian special forces team involved
in the attack on Balibo. In 2007, he visited
Australia. When
his testimony was sought
by an official coroner’s inquest in Sydney
investigating the deaths of journalists,
he
quickly fled
the country.
In addition to his involvement in the illegal
invasion of Timor-Leste, he served in Aceh,
and stands
accused of involvement
in “the summary execution of thousands of
alleged gangsters in Jakarta.” He was Jakarta
military commander when thugs backed by
troops and police
attacked the headquarters
of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
in 1996.
Its head, Megawati Sukarnoputri was replaced
by someone more favorable to the regime.
Former pro-independence fighters in Baucau,
Timor-Leste, “accused
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso
of conducting regular torture sessions there
in the 1970s.”
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About ETAN
The
East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network
(ETAN) was founded in 1991. ETAN supports
democracy, human rights and justice in Timor-Leste,
West Papua and Indonesia. ETAN is non-partisan.
It works on issues and does not support
candidates or political parties in any country.
Website:
www.etan.org
Twitter: @etan009.
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