Adi Sasono blames unrest on disparity

Adi Sasono blames unrest on disparity

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): A topic that Adi Sasono, the secretary-general
of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI),
always talks about passionately is the economic disparity between
the ethnic Chinese and the have-nots, many of whom are Moslems,
and how this can lead to hostility.

But he hardly suspects that violence between the two groups
would erupt in his hometown, Pekalongan.

Last Wednesday, a riot rocked the coastal town some 300
kilometers east of here. After supporters of the United
Development Party (PPP) protested the political bias of local
authorities, some people took their frustration out on the local
Chinese.

"I was surprised," said Adi, who was attending a conference in
Kuala Lumpur during the riot. To him, Pekalongan was not a place
of racial tension.

"I know of a cooperative, called Koperasi Jasa Pembangunan,
that was founded by a Moslem, and the managing director is
Chinese," he said.

He speculated that the riot could have been triggered by
political discontent, but tension was ripe because of economic
disparity.

"The real problem is economic disparity, but the Chinese are
always the black sheep," said the 54-year-old executive-turned
activist. There was another riot in the town in November 1995. It
was caused by religious issues.

He called for immediate affirmative action, with the
government helping indigenous people's businesses compete with
Chinese businesses.

"The government should not only help Prayogo (Pangestu), Eka
(Widjaja) or Liem (Sioei Liong)," he said, referring to
Indonesia's top tycoons. "They could not have become as big as
they have if the government had not helped them."

Many Moslem leaders, however, do not agree with Adi.
Abdurrahman Wahid, the leader of the 30-million strong Nahdlatul
Ulama, once accused Adi of trying to replace Chinese economic
power with Islamic economic power.

"We should not take over the (power of) Chinese tycoons, we
should ask them to be our partners," said the Moslem scholar who
is better known as Gus Dur.

Adi denies planning to replace Chinese economic power. He said
the top players should stay in the game, but small players had to
have room to grow.

He argues that affirmative action will not only help the
pribumi (indigenous Indonesians), but also protect the
Chinese.

"The Pekalongan stores that were burned down belonged to
people who had worked hard," he said. "Our Chinese brothers are
in a dangerous position."

Adi takes pride in his father's efforts to integrate the
Chinese into the pribumi community in Pekalongan. But he hasn't
always followed in his father's footsteps.

In 1963, while still a student at Bandung's Institute of
Technology, he was involved in an anti-Chinese movement on campus
that later spread to other cities.

He said that he was immature then: "Now, I have many Chinese
friends: Mari Pangestu, Jusuf Wanandi."

And, if anyone thinks he is a fundamentalist Moslem who wants
to form an Islamic state, he usually laughs at them.

"How can I be a fundamentalist Moslem? My in-laws are
Catholics. I went to school in the West and used to live in a
diverse society. How can I be more radical than, say, somebody
who was educated in the Middle East?" said Adi, who graduated
from Phillips Las Centrum in the Netherlands with a degree in
engineering.

Diversity

As the secretary-general of ICMI since 1993, he commands the
best brains of this country's 175 million Moslems. But this does
not mean he controls their minds.

The most recent headlines have been about two prominent ICMI
members: Sri Bintang Pamungkas is facing subversion charges, and
Amien Rais has stepped down from the prestigious Council of
Experts because of "pressure from the power structure".

Far from being upset, Adi looks rather proud.

"That shows the diversity of ICMI," said Adi, also the
director of the Center for Information and Development Studies,
an ICMI think tank. "We have bureaucrats, generals, scholars and
even Sri Bintang, Southeast Asia's biggest opposition figure."

Because ICMI is chaired by State Minister of Research and
Technology B.J. Habibie and has President Soeharto as its chief
patron, many see it as a government-backed organization, mostly
joined by bureaucrats and wannabes.

Nonetheless, Adi insists that ICMI is independent, citing that
ICMI did not condemn the unrecognized Democratic People's Party
over last year's unrest when many other organizations did so.

ICMI has called for fair trials for the Party's young
activists.

"Adi Sasono is a political animal," Abdurrahman once said,
linking Adi to the recent riots in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and
Situbondo in East Java. "He is constructing political power
through socioeconomic functions."

Arief Budiman, who was a colleague of Adi's at the Development
Studies Body non-governmental organization, said: "Adi Sasono
clearly has ambitions.

"He had once been close with high-ranking officials such as
Ali Sadikin and Bustanil Arifin. The most success he has achieved
was when he became close to Habibie. He achieved a highly
influential position," Arief said.

Adi laughed. "I don't have any political ambitions," he said.
"If I had political ambitions, I wouldn't have done anything to
provoke those in power."

Adi has helped found controversial movements over the years.

In the 1970s, when anticommunist sentiment was strong, poet
W.S. Rendra, Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, Abdurrahman's mother
and Adi founded the Humaika Foundation to help former Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) political prisoners readjust to society.

"Only a mad man would stand up for an ex-PKI member," said
Adi, whose position as general manager of PT Krama Yudha-Phillips
has given him access to seek donations from businesspeople for
his activities.

He quit Krama Yudha in 1978 to join Ali Sadikin's non-
governmental organization (NGO), called the Development Studies
Institute (LSP).

"Working in the private sector, I felt like a stranger in
paradise. I was a student activist, and there I found myself
feeling so detached from the people," he said on why he quit his
highly-paid job.

Under his leadership, the LSP won an Aga Khan award for urban
planning in Samarinda. Adi has also actively supported the
informal sector, such as promoting a cooperative for street
vendors in Yogyakarta.

He joined ICMI when it was established in 1990. He became its
secretary-general from 1995 to 2000. Many people were not happy
with having an ex-NGO activist as their secretary-general, he
said.

Amien Rais, however, has his own opinion on Adi: "He has an
experienced perspective and emotions... He is right for the
secretary-general position because he is an honest person."

How about being recognized as a Habibie's protegee?

"The agenda of ICMI is human rights' promotion. I've been
working for human rights for years, and Habibie's specialty is in
technology. Let me ask you, whom would you ask about human
rights? I am who I am, and Habibie is Habibie," said Adi.