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.