Wiranto should resign<\/p>\n
The misfortune, if one can call it that, that has befallen our
\nformer chief of the Indonesian Military and the current
\ncoordinating minister for political and security affairs, Gen.
\nWiranto, together with his reactions to the matter and the
\nconsequences that the whole affair could have for this nation are
\nall illustrative of Indonesia's problems in this time of
\ndemocratic transition.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the world, any high-ranking government official
\ncaught in a situation such as Gen. Wiranto would probably have
\npromptly tendered his resignation as soon as his good name became
\npublicly tarnished. Cabinet ministers elsewhere are known to have
\nresigned for being merely implicated in financial, sexual or
\nother personal scandals that damaged their reputations.<\/p>\n
In Wiranto's case, the crimes in which the coordinating
\nminister is being implicated -- even if only crimes of omission
\n-- are of course far more serious than engaging in illicit
\npersonal affairs. The crimes for which he is being held co-
\nresponsible -- arson, destruction, enforced disappearances, the
\nkilling of hundreds of people and the forceful displacement of
\nhundreds of thousands more in the wake of last year's
\nindependence referendum in East Timor -- is ranked by the United
\nNations as no less than genocide, which is a severe crime against
\nhumanity.<\/p>\n
What makes it all especially dire, not only for those directly
\nimplicated in the crimes but for the nation as a whole, is that
\nIndonesians are at present living in a world in which national
\nborders and the sovereign rights of nations seem in many
\ninstances to have lost their relevance, and this is true
\nespecially where human rights are concerned. Worse still,
\nIndonesia at present is definitely in no position to tell the
\ninternational community to mind its own business. Besides, the
\nnation is determined to move ahead with its program of democratic
\nreform, whatever the challenges. Hence, President Abdurrahman
\nWahid's determination on his return from traveling abroad to ask
\nWiranto to resign from the Cabinet and stand before a court of
\njustice to plead his case.<\/p>\n
As President Abdurrahman Wahid remarked in Davos, a voluntary
\nresignation by Wiranto and his acceptance of a fair trial in an
\nindependent court would of course be the most gracious way for
\nthe general to end the current pressures from home and abroad on
\nhimself and the government to allow justice to prevail by letting
\nthe law take its course. At the same time, however, Wiranto's
\nrecalcitrance is fully understandable. Not only is his career at
\nstake, he was raised and bred in a political culture in which
\ncodes of honor often differed from those accepted in most other
\nparts in the civilized world. That old culture, developed and
\ncarefully nurtured by Soeharto's New Order regime, has not
\nentirely vanished.<\/p>\n
As things are at present, though, Wiranto's reluctance to
\nvoluntarily relinquish his position as requested by the President
\npresents the nation with a number of awkward complications. For
\none thing, the judicial authorities will have difficulty bringing
\nsuch a highly placed government official to court. For another,
\nit raises the menacing possibility of discontent spreading among
\nthe military. A failure to try Wiranto and the others implicated
\nin the East Timor violence can only raise the pressure abroad for
\na trial in an international court, with all the undesirable
\nimplications of such a trial for the Indonesian military and the
\nnation.<\/p>\n
All things considered, the best service Gen. Wiranto could do
\nfor his country, his nation and his fellow soldiers in the
\nIndonesian military is to obey his supreme commander, the
\nPresident, resign his Cabinet post and prepare himself to present
\nhis case in a fair trial in an Indonesian court of justice.
\nCertainly for Gen. Wiranto the experience will not be a pleasant
\none. But as the highest military commander during the time of the
\nEast Timor violence, there is no other way the general can
\nhonorably extricate himself from his present difficult position.
\nAs the French say, noblesse oblige.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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