Is ABRI losing its sight of history?<\/p>\n
Reactions to the startling remarks made by the Army Chief Gen.
\nHartono recently that every member of the Armed Forces is a
\nsupporter of Golkar have continued unabated. Political scientist
\nJ. Soedjati Djiwandono argues that the Armed Forces may have lost
\nsight of history.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Certain points need to be highlighted in the
\ncurrent debate on the appropriate link or relationship between
\nthe Armed Forces (ABRI) and the functional group Golkar. What
\nlessons can we learn from this episode?<\/p>\n
The remark of Gen. Hartono's that sparked off all this fuss,
\nnamely the assertion that ABRI members -- not just the Army, of
\nwhich he is Chief of Staff -- are Golkar cadres, created the
\nimpression he was speaking on behalf of the Armed Forces as a
\nwhole. At first sight it may appear to be only a minor point.<\/p>\n
That his authority to do so may have been questioned may be
\none reason behind the seemingly contradictory and confusing
\ncomments. One ABRI leader commented that Gen. Hartono's remark
\nrepresented his personal view. In the mean time, no word has been
\nheard from any of the chiefs of staff of the other services.<\/p>\n
One cannot help but ask, what has happened to the leadership
\nof ABRI, which, in the words of Article 28 of Law No. 20\/1982,
\n"as a social force shall act as the dynamizer and stabilizer,
\nwhich along with other social forces shall perform the task of
\nsafeguarding and ensuring the success of the national struggle in
\nensuring independence and promoting the welfare of the Indonesian
\npeople"?<\/p>\n
Worst of all is the argument in support of Gen. Hartono's
\nview, that after all it was ABRI that gave birth to Golkar. This,
\nsurely, is not wrong in itself. But it is wrongheaded. It has
\nlost sight of history. Memories are too short.<\/p>\n
One cannot help but ask, who then gave birth to the other two
\npolitical parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party and the United
\nDevelopment Party? In point of fact, each came into being as a
\nresult of a forced merger of like-minded political parties. And
\nwho was the motivating, driving force behind these mergers,
\nconceived to simplify the multi-party system? It was ABRI.<\/p>\n
Indeed, one may argue that ABRI was simply acting as the
\n"midwife" assisting the birth of these two political parties. But
\nthe same may be said of Golkar. It was not Golkar itself, but its
\npredecessor, the Sekber Golkar (Joint Secretariat of the
\nFunctional Groups not affiliated to political parties), the root
\nof the present Golkar, whose establishment ABRI helped initiate.<\/p>\n
On that basis, strictly speaking, Gen. Hartono's remark should
\nbe reversed. Golkar members are "cadres" of ABRI, not the other
\nway round! And so are members of the other two political parties.
\nBut surely, this would be a further distortion of the term
\n"cadre", which has been distorted and grossly misunderstood all
\nalong, anyway. And to assert that ABRI members are cadres of
\nGolkar and are therefore committed to its electoral victory is,
\nto put it mildly, worrisome. It is intimidating. ABRI members
\nthemselves don't have the right to vote, so what may be the
\nimplication of such a commitment?<\/p>\n
The point is that the three political organizations (parties)
\nare all the result of ABRI's social and political engineering,
\nfor good, noble and therefore justifiable purposes, that is not
\nonly to simplify but more importantly to re-orient the party
\nsystem towards the Pancasila state ideology. This was to be
\nconfirmed in 1983, with the introduction of the azas tunggal
\n(sole ideological) basis of Pancasila for all social and
\npolitical groupings.<\/p>\n
Therefore, for ABRI to take side with any one of the political
\nparties is tantamount, as it were, to a "father" taking side of
\nhis favorite "son". Whatever may the reasons, such an attitude
\ndoes not befit a good and wise "father", especially for reasons
\nof vested interest. What kind of a "father" is ABRI in that
\nsense? What kind of a leader? What kind of a 'stabilizer and
\ndynamizer'? Is ABRI losing its sight of history as well? Is it
\nlosing its capacity for strategic thinking? Is it losing sight of
\nits leading and strategic position as the mainstay of national
\nstability?<\/p>\n
Indeed, the truth sometimes hurts. But we ought to be honest
\nwith ourselves. At least for a long time to come and in a crucial
\nway, this nation will continue to depend on ABRI's leadership.<\/p>\n
The writer is a member of the Board of Directors of the Centre
\nfor Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>",
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