Chivalrous attitude
One of the capital's dailies reported in its Sept. 6 edition Gen. (ret.) Rudini appealing to the community that it should stop its condemnation of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI). On the previous day, Minister of Defense and Security/Commander of the Armed Forces Gen. Wiranto made public his defense of the Armed Forces when he said " ...don't bring the Armed Forces to justice..."
It seems that the statements made by these two ABRI figures have been based on a mistaken assumption. People do not in the least intend to condemn, discredit or even bring to justice ABRI. So far, the people have been demanding that ABRI show its chivalry and its accountability as a professional institution upholding a high moral standard.
As an institution, the Armed Forces cannot give a pretext that it only carry out its professional tasks so that it cannot be simply blamed, as Rudini said in his statement.
In fact, Wiranto demonstrated the chivalrous qualities of ABRI when he openly tendered his apology for human rights violation cases in Aceh. However, it seems that not all "ranks" of ABRI fully agree to the stance taken by Wiranto and even the "ranks" of retired Army men, as shown by Rudini, do not want to so easily "admit" their mistakes.
As a former high-ranking officer of the Armed Forces, Rudini has not shown quite an edifying attitude. He should have fully supported the gallant and chivalrous attitude as Wiranto and Prabowo have demonstrated. In this respect, Rudini should place himself only as a model figure of ABRI, one that can give encouragement from behind. One may get the impression from his statement that he does not wish to see ABRI take up a chivalrous attitude, as already "pioneered" by Wiranto and also that he prefers ABRI to go back to its "basic attitude", as already shown so far, namely hiding behind obsolete pretexts such as "a procedural mistake", "an analytical error" and the like.
The attitude shown by Rudini is "quite understandable" because when he was a high-ranking officer -- among others the Army chief of staff -- the Tanjung Priok case broke out. Also, when he was minister of home affairs, various human rights violations occurred in, among others, Aceh. It seems that Rudini is "afraid" of being implicated in these cases. Hence his less chivalrous statement.
Every past "criminal case" perpetrated by ABRI cannot be closed just by tendering an apology or by undertaking humanitarian and charitable acts. As a professional institution, ABRI must uphold moral ethics and professionalism by utterly exposing all these "criminal cases", enforcing the law, bringing the perpetrators and the masterminds to court and providing the victims and their families with compensation.
ABRI should do all these things and should not instead cleanse itself of the guilt. Is it true, then, that the gut of the Armed Forces is only that much?
MOH. ABDUL KARIM
Jakarta