Indonesia's flight from modernity<\/p>\n
Our Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin remembers Gen. Ali
\nMoertopo against the background of Indonesia's current crisis.
\nThis is the second of two articles.<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): Some day, somebody should write a book on
\n\"Sycophancy In Asian Politics\". If it was properly done by an
\nauthor of stature, who felt no obligation to please anybody , it
\ncould be an invaluable as well as a wide-ranging volume.<\/p>\n
This is not to suggest in any way that sycophancy is merely an
\nAsian problem. Sycophancy, it goes without saying, is a universal
\nphenomenon. For example, I know of one long-reigning husband and
\nwife team, in charge of a famous Western company, who receive,
\nand probably by now expect, a degree of sycophancy similar to
\nthat which once afflicted the two Marcoses.<\/p>\n
But at least that company exists in a society which is heading
\ntowards modernity, and which provides, in the political arena,
\nimpersonal checks and balances, whereby dissenting views are
\nheard, differing viewpoints are considered, and it is very
\ndifficult indeed for a leader to become too puffed-up with his
\nown infallibility.<\/p>\n
Colonialism often instituted a veneer of modernity. But the
\ncolonialists, fearing for their legitimacy, usually tried to
\nencourage political indifference among the masses in their
\ncolonies, plus a high degree of sycophancy within the local
\nelite. The tragedy has been that too many of the post-
\ncolonialists have behaved in a broadly similar way.<\/p>\n
Essentially, having established himself politically, having
\ninstituted a degree of Indonesian political stability and
\ninitiated progress towards economic development and regional
\ncooperation, President Soeharto led Indonesia on a flight away
\nfrom modernity.<\/p>\n
That was Indonesia's, not just Soeharto's, fundamental
\npolitical and economic failure. Excessive sycophancy became the
\nfundamental political principle of a deeply flawed authoritarian
\nregime. The leadership demanded it. The elite provided it. The
\nflight away from modernity gathered pace particularly in the last
\ndecade and a half.<\/p>\n
Of course, Soeharto set about providing the trappings of an
\neconomically developed state. But the more he succeeded in
\nproviding the outward shows, the more profound was his failure to
\nalso endow Indonesia with the inner substance of modernity: a
\npress than can fully and freely print differing views; an elite
\nthat is used to discussing and debating the complexities of
\ndevelopment; a bureaucracy which can impersonally and uncorruptly
\nregulate the economic growing pains accompanying globalization; a
\npolitical system which allows various interests to openly
\ncompete, and reconcile their differences.<\/p>\n
Even here, the blame does not simply lie either with
\nIndonesians or even just with Soeharto. Foreign investors were
\namong the worst of sycophants as they over-extolled the
\nIndonesian economic achievement in their pursuit of profit and
\nrushed into the arena, choosing which of Soeharto's six children
\nwould be their partner.<\/p>\n
They should have known that, by doing this, they were
\nparticipating in a dangerous political game -- and actually
\nweakening a house built precariously on shifting political sands.
\nWhen those sands did begin to shift, then another form of
\nsycophancy took hold, as investors rushed for the exits like a
\nmindless herd of thoughtless cattle.<\/p>\n
The blame does not simply lie with greedy businessmen either.
\nForeign governments, especially the world's sole superpower, the
\nUnited States, allowed themselves, whenever they thought about
\nIndonesia -- which was actually very rarely -- to be lulled, as
\nIndonesians also were, by the bald statistics of economic growth.
\nThe GNP was going up by leaps and bounds, so why worry?<\/p>\n
But Indonesia's real GNP -- its Growth in National Politics --
\nwas sinking fast. Indonesia's erstwhile allies like the United
\nStates said nothing.<\/p>\n
There was something dreadfully shabby, even despicable, as
\nSecretary of State Madeleine Albright delivered a verbal hint
\nthat Soeharto should go, at the very last minute of his
\npresidency, while President Bill Clinton was too cowardly to say
\nwhat he was probably thinking out loud.<\/p>\n
The time for telling Soeharto that he had gone too far along
\nthe path of one-man rule was long since past. As in Manila in
\n1986, so in Jakarta in 1998, the U.S. it seemed, rushed in to
\nclaim a wholly undeserved \"success\" for itself, when, in reality,
\nthe effort of poor Indonesians, mainly students, was belatedly
\nmaking up for all those years when the United States was content
\nto co- exist with the ever more willful dictator.<\/p>\n
Yet the greatest blame must still lie with the weak-kneed
\nsycophancy of the Indonesian elite. The demonstrations by the
\nstudents in the House of Representatives, and the rampages of the
\nmobs of poverty stricken slum dwellers in Medan, Jakarta and Solo
\n(and maybe other places we do not yet know about) had to make up
\nfor, at the cost of many lives lost, the craven sycophancy of the
\nelite.<\/p>\n
Were Ali Moertopo alive today he would be insisting that,
\nMarch 1998 should never be forgotten. The Indonesian People's
\nConsultative Assembly was in session. 1000 members of the elite
\nwere appointed to it. To be sure, they had to sign certificates
\nof allegiance to Soeharto before they could take their seats.
\nThe harsh -- and infamous -- fact remains that not a single
\nmember raised any solid objection whatsoever, when Soeharto was
\nnominated for a seventh term for which he was manifestly unfit.<\/p>\n
That was sycophancy gone mad. Soeharto responded in kind.
\nAll the endless servile sycophancy had implanted his conviction
\nthat he could reestablish the Javanese monarchy, and make his
\ndaughter his successor. Sycophancy had its most dangerous result.
\nHe thought -- and perhaps still thinks -- that he was the King
\nwho could do no wrong.<\/p>\n
Ali Moertopo knew in his bones that all leaders inevitably do
\nwrong unless their advisers give them the truth as the advisers
\nknow it.<\/p>\n
He saw the sad writing on the Indonesian wall as to where
\nSoeharto's ego and susceptibility to flattery would inevitably
\nlead. The Moertopo-Soeharto teamwork that had built the regime
\nfeel apart as sycophancy increasingly sustained it.<\/p>\n
The clearest sign that Soeharto was all set to go wherever
\nsycophancy would take him came when Soeharto had his
\nautobiography ghost-written for him, telling of his great
\nachievements. There was no mention anywhere in its pages of the
\ncrucial political role played by Ali Moertopo, and another Gen.
\nSudjono Humardhani, in establishing Soeharto in power. They were
\nabsolutely crucial advisers -- but they were eliminated from the
\nstory. In the book Soeharto, of course, did it all himself.
\nSycophancy had reached its ultimate stage -- the rewriting of
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
Hence the brief retelling of what really happened, at the
\nbeginning of this article.<\/p>\n
After that small but so significant incident, in which
\nMoertopo, the honest ally, became a non-person, it became
\nvirtually inevitable that Soeharto would never step down in time
\nto save his achievements. Soeharto, surrounded by sycophants,
\nended up with virtually the same accomplishment as Sukarno. Both
\nleaders took the nation from the mountain-top of expectation to
\nthe depths of economic devastation.<\/p>\n
Moertopo died suddenly in the mid 1980s. To their shame, the
\nsycophants paid scant attention to his passing. He was the only
\nIndonesian I know who could have told Soeharto to his face that
\nhe risked ruining his record and his nation. But had Moertopo
\nlived, the Indonesian sycophantic state would almost certainly
\nhave prevented Ali from ever delivering such a message in person.<\/p>\n
Window: Colonialism often instituted a veneer of modernity. But the
\ncolonialists, fearing for their legitimacy, usually tried to
\nencourage political indifference among the masses in their
\ncolonies, plus a high degree of sycophancy within the local
\nelite.<\/p>",
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