Stanley Weiss, chairman of Business Executives for National Security, knows how to lie for the Indonesian military. In his short op-ed for the International Herald Tribune (appended below), he manages to pack in a whole slew of lies. Learn from his op-ed and you too will soon be able to lie for fun and profit.

1. Say that the military's dual function is enshrined in the 1945 constitution.

2. Say that the military became involved in business because the government didn't give it enough money.

3. Say that "the single greatest cause to corruption and violence among the military and the police" is "low pay" (and then offer to send US tax dollars to keep these poor, starving soldiers and policemen from turning to a life of crime).

4. Say that the East Timorese struggle against an illegal occupation of their land was a case of succession.

5. Say that the victory of the East Timorese in evicting the the army of occupation is evidence of how weak and in need of reform the army is.

6. Say the post-ballot scorched earth campaign in East Timor was due to certain "hardline" elements.

7. Say that the new 'civilian' defense minister and the new commander are committed reformers.

8. Say that the Indonesian military needs more training from the US military so that it will learn to respect human rights. (Don't say anything about the implication: that Indonesian officers are so stupid and inhuman -- after all the training they have received from the US -- that they do not know that massacring civilians, ransacking hospitals, trashing bazaars, kidnapping activists, and torturing detainees are no-nos.)

9. Say that a democratic system is dependent upon thirty percent of the population having clean water, electricity, food, housing, and health care, and thereby endorse the Suharto's 'economic development' justification for authoritarianism.

Whatever you say, keep smiling and don't say anything about crimes against humanity.

International Herald Tribune Wednesday, November 3, 1999

Next, Indonesians Need to Reform Their Military
By Stanley A. Weiss International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON - After the successful transfer of power to President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's political leadership is turning toward the challenge of bringing stability, prosperity and democracy to the far-flung archipelago nation.

There is no shortage of outside advice. Many in the West want the new president to focus on returning nearly a quarter of a million East Timorese still in camps in Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Others, particularly foreign bankers, brokers and fund managers, want Indonesia to do whatever it takes to pull out of its worst economic crisis in a generation, even at the expense of democratic reforms.

President Wahid, while not ignoring any of his country's many daunting problems, is focusing on reforming the most powerful and influential element of society, the military. One of his first acts has been to appoint a civilian as minister of defense and security. For the first time in Indonesia's 54 years of independence, a civilian is in charge of the armed forces and the police.

The 1945 constitution assigned the military the ''dual function'' of defending the nation from invaders and ensuring social and political stability. With the army as its backbone, the armed forces have had a monopoly on state coercive power, reaching down to the village level. They served as the only unifying force in the nation's early days, but over time they assumed more and more police functions. After the 1965 coup, President Suharto folded the police into the armed forces, and the military moved from protector of the people to oppressor.

Like its counterparts in China, Thailand and Vietnam, the military became involved in business to supplement an inadequate defense budget. Its corporate wealth is almost $10 billion, including share holdings (with the Suharto family) in timber concessions and telecommunications in East Timor.

The weakness of the military helps explain its violent excesses in East Timor, where it was powerless to prevent secession. Some elements, including a core of hard-line active and retired military officers and police-intelligence personnel, organized and supplied militias which pursued a scorched earth policy to send a clear message to other separatist movements that destruction would be the price of independence.

Enter Juwono Sudarsono, the new minister of defense and security, a leading strategic analyst with degrees from the University of Indonesia, the University of California-Berkeley and the London School of Economics. He previously served as minister of the environment and as minister of education and culture. He faces the enormous task of reforming the armed forces.

He will have help. Mr. Wahid has appointed a naval officer as armed forces commander, which should bring a new emphasis on Indonesia's real external security challenge - coping with piracy and smuggling.

Mr. Juwono must create transparency in the dreaded BIA, the armed forces' intelligence agency, and put it under strict civilian control.

Most important, he should ask the president to separate the military from the police. The police were made nominally distinct last April but continue to report to the minister of defense and security. They should answer to the minister for home affairs.

Indonesia's new leadership cannot do all of this alone. Instead of weakening military-to-military ties, as Washington did in the wake of the violence in East Timor, U.S. policymakers should increase those contacts.

Admiral Dennis Blair, U.S. commander of Pacific forces, should be a frequent visitor to Jakarta, offering to help build up Indonesia's navy. The International Military Education and Training program should be expanded so that more Indonesian officers can spend time in the United States.

The U.S. State and Justice Departments should continue sending police commanders to offer advice to Indonesian counterparts on how to deal with crowd control and improve relations between the police and the people.

Washington could help Jakarta fix the single greatest cause to corruption and violence among the military and the police - low pay. It should consider aid specifically targeted to raising their pay, as a way to get the military and police out of business.

Only when the military is under control can Jakarta begin to share power and revenues with the outer islands. Only then will secessionist forces be stilled and the nation's stability ensured. Only when Indonesia is stable will foreign investment that brings prosperity begin to flow. And only when that prosperity creates a strong middle class will democracy take firm root.

Mr. Juwono has told me that when 30 percent of the population has ready access to electricity, potable water, adequate housing, primary health care and food, Indonesia will be ready for democracy. It is not there yet. Only about 5 percent of the 210 million people could be classified as middle-class.

Creating the conditions for democracy will take time. At least President Wahid knows where to start.

The writer, founder and chairman of Business Executives for National Security, an organization of U.S. business leaders, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

John Roosa is a historian of South and Southeast Asia who holds a Ph.D. in history from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison.