ABRI at 53 years old

ABRI at 53 years old

ABRI, the Armed Forces, celebrates its 53rd anniversary today
against a backdrop of declining public popularity.

The new reality is that people are extremely disappointed with
the excessive implementation of ABRI's right, bequeathed to it by
the Soeharto regime, to intervene in all national activities
without limit or supervision. The privilege has made ABRI believe
it can do no wrong.

Never before has our military appeared in the limelight with
such a frightful face. But perhaps this is not surprising because
for more than three decades it served as an effective tool of the
authoritarian regime, and in doing so almost pushed the nation to
the brink of calamity.

Soeharto, with ABRI's help, denied the people their
constitutional rights for the sake of economic development. Now,
with the economy collapsed, nobody has jumped forward to tell us
what is left for the nation? We see there are bleeding wounds in
the hearts of the people who were harassed to vote for Golkar,
Soeharto's election machine. There is also an ill-favored soap
opera in which military officers occupy civilian posts without
restriction.

And in the darker chapters of the country's history, such as
the 1984 Tanjung Priok incident and East Timor, are
manifestations of official bloodbaths, most recently brought to
light in the discovery of killing fields in Aceh. Added to this
must be the observation that those responsible for the
attrocities remain undisturbed in their highly placed positions.

The stories of the unbelievable acts of violence and human
rights violations are beyond comparison. Heartless tyrants from
Africa, Bosnia-Herzegovina or Cambodia -- if they still deem it
necessary to learn more about the massacre of innocent people
without an eyewitness daring to open his or her mouth -- should
come here to study the art of the management of fear.

Now, at 53 years of age, ABRI has to be seen to be
appreciating that its popularity is dwindling as the appeals
intensify for the end of its dual function. The latest
manifestation of its poor public image came in a recent
independent survey, which found that 46.5 percent of the
respondents did not believe ABRI was really protecting the
people, compared to 39.1 percent who believed it was and 14.4
percent who abstained.

The survey also found as many as 50.2 percent did not believe
in the veracity of the slogan "ABRI and the people are one", 42.6
percent said they believed the military was united with the
people, while 7.3 percent said they did not know. The poll,
titled ABRI and the People, was conducted by the Center for the
Study of Development and Democracy (CESDA), a body linked to the
respected Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education
and Information (LP3ES).

In light of the unremitting demands for reform, we have
repeatedly expressed the hope that ABRI leaders do not fail to
understand the social change as a sign of the times. But we have
not seen them understand that ABRI's dual function has already
become an anachronism and anathema to democratic values.

They even keep threatening to take stern measures against
reform-minded students and suspect political activists of having
the desire to disturb public order.

This tendency among high-ranking generals shows they lack any
understanding of history, in that it is not only civilians who
have a habit to cause trouble. Military officers too have got
involved in many national tragedies, from the kidnapping of prime
minister Sutan Syahrir in Surakarta in 1946, the show of force
against president Sukarno in front of the palace in 1952, the
PRRI colonels' rebellions in Sumatra and North Sulawesi in 1958,
to the 1965 communist coup attempt. The bloody clash between
military units, in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, last week was not
an unprecedented modern melodrama.

Clear demonstrations that ABRI leaders are reluctant to bow to
popular demand are that they have refused to bring to justice
those involved in Trisakti students shooting in May and only
fired Lt. Gen. Prabowo, who admitted to ordering the kidnapping
of political activists and have done nothing to punish the
officers who were involved in the brutal murder of Marsinah, an
East Java labor activist. The policy is clearly based on an
efforts to show internal solidarity among ABRI members.

Such a policy will be counter-productive. As time goes on, the
generals' insensitivity will only see the military being even
further shunned by the people.