Wiranto warns against fueling extremism<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Former Indonesian military chief Gen. (ret.)
\nWiranto warned on Friday that Indonesia was slowly being driven
\nto the edge of a cliff by political leaders mobilizing \"seas of
\npeople that could lead to a flood of extremism\".<\/p>\n
Addressing diplomats and businessmen at a major conference,
\nWiranto also compared President Abdurrahman Wahid's leadership to
\nSoeharto's autocracy, and claimed that corruption, collusion and
\nnepotism were \"alive almost everywhere\".<\/p>\n
His warning against inciting radical groups came a day after
\nAbdurrahman, speaking at the same conference, predicted a
\n\"nationwide rebellion\" if the House of Representatives sought his
\nimpeachment.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman loyalists in East Java have defied police orders
\nto stop \"war training\", and the President claimed on Wednesday
\nthat up to \"400,000 people from all over Java, Lampung and
\nSumatra\" would flock to Jakarta unless the House backs down.<\/p>\n
Wiranto, who was sacked last year as coordinating minister for
\npolitical and security affairs after being investigated for
\nalleged human rights abuses in East Timor, said Indonesia was
\nstruggling through one of the most difficult times in its
\nhistory.<\/p>\n
In a speech titled Lessons from the Past, he said today's
\ncrisis could be considered worse than in the 1950s under founding
\npresident Sukarno, when political parties also held mass rallies
\nand formed militias.<\/p>\n
He outlined faults in both the Old and New Orders, and
\nsuggested the current regime appeared unable to learn from those
\nmistakes.<\/p>\n
\"Today we find a mobilization of seas of people which could
\nlead to a flood of extremism,\" he told the conference on
\nIndonesia's future, organized by the consultancy firm, Van Zorge,
\nHeffernan and Associates.<\/p>\n
\"Our politicians, who have called on their followers to form
\nranks, have driven us to the edge of a cliff.<\/p>\n
\"Such maneuvers have made it nearly impossible to form a
\nconsensus and solve the many national problems we face.\"<\/p>\n
Indonesia was entering a new phase of history, \"that of the
\nmobilization of vast masses of people who force one opinion (on
\nothers) and the forming of paramilitary groups and militias that
\nopenly prepare for civil war\".<\/p>\n
\"This is something that could prove dangerous, not only for
\nour democracy but for the very life of our republic.\"<\/p>\n
The communist coup of 1965 has remained a black stain on
\nIndonesia's history, in which people died needlessly and
\nunjustly, Wiranto said.<\/p>\n
\"This happened because our sense of national unity was
\ncrushed, it happened because party reality and the working of
\nideology was placed above national interest.<\/p>\n
\"So let us ask ourselves, are we going to repeat this
\nhorrifying mistake as well?\"<\/p>\n
After the fall of the New Order regime there had been a widely
\nheld conviction that the new Indonesia would provide a new life,
\n\"one that was better and brighter\", said Wiranto, who rose to
\npower under Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"After nearly two years, though, where do we find ourselves?<\/p>\n
\"We find ourselves further and further from what we had or
\nhoped for.<\/p>\n
\"The reform movement, which should have provided us with the
\nmeans for greater democracy, has been turned instead into a tool
\n(for a leadership) that is justifying itself with rhetoric and is
\nspoiling our democracy.<\/p>\n
Wiranto said the new government had not simply repeated old
\nerrors, \"but had in fact added to them and so made it even more
\ndifficult for Indonesia to fulfill its dream of becoming a
\ndeveloped nation, capable of contributing in a positive way on
\nthe world stage\".<\/p>\n
\"If the current government could simply change its image to a
\nproblem-solver rather than a problem-maker, then maybe there
\ncould be the possibility of preventing more serious conflict.\"<\/p>\n
Signs of personal rule by President Abdurrahman were becoming
\nmore evident, he said. They could be seen in the way he had
\nallegedly been involved in a number of legal cases, his
\ninterference in banking law, and his habit of breaching
\nagreements with political parties.<\/p>\n
\"We need to ask ourselves whether or not the lessons we learnt
\nabout the ... personal rule under the regimes of president
\nSukarno and president Soeharto have been sufficient to educate
\nus.\"<\/p>\n
Separately, East Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sutanto said
\n14,000 police officers would be deployed across East Java
\nstarting Wednesday to anticipate the expected gatherings of pro-
\nAbdurrahman supporters.<\/p>\n
\"My officers will comb the streets for anybody leaving for
\nJakarta carrying a weapon,\" Sutanto told reporters at National
\nPolice Headquarters on Friday.<\/p>\n
He added that sources had informed him that thousands of
\nmembers from the Defenders of Truth ready-to-die force have
\nentered Jakarta and are being sheltered in Islamic boarding
\nschools across the capital.<\/p>\n
\"I myself don't have concrete evidence as yet...but we have to
\ntake extra measures in any case.\" (ptr\/ylt\/prb)<\/p>",
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