Jakarta waits for the new commander to act

By Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): As Jakarta's new military commander Maj. Gen. Wiranto adjusts himself to his new seat, Jakartans wonder what he will do to make the capital a securer place to live, or at least as secure as during the tenure of his predecessor Maj. Gen. Hendropriyono.

"I shall continue what my predecessor has done," said Wiranto, 47, born in Yogyakarta, at his recent swearing in ceremony.

That may be either an expression of honest appreciation of Hendro's security feats, or simply a polite way of speaking.

In retrospect, Hendro uttered the same words when he took the commander's baton from his predecessor, Maj. Gen. Kentot Harseno, in April 1993. As it turned out, Hendro set up District Military Command schools instead of carrying on Harseno's tactic of shaving the heads of juvenile delinquents.

Anyway Wiranto is not the only one in town to respect his predecessor's accomplishments. Hendro, honestly speaking, has left no few admirers in Jakarta for his new ideas in dealing with juvenile delinquency; his relaxed and attractive style in facing the press, which generally remains a scourge to most officials; his democratic fashion in tackling social issues; his anticipation of the growth of organized crime, and his zeal for learning.

His popularity is such that his replacement and move to the post of director of the newly-formed Military Training and Education Command has engendered speculation in the press as to whether he has been promoted or demoted. The uncertainty is understandable. The educational body is a newborn, with Hendro being the first to command it. Thus there is no precedent on the basis of which Hendro's future can be predicted.

As a matter of fact, Jakartans are not unfamiliar with Wiranto. He served as Hendro's deputy in the position of head of the Jakarta military command's staff. Wiranto, who was a presidential guard before that stint, was known as a behind-the- scenes, no-nonsense, reclusive personality; strikingly different from his then boss.

Wiranto also has been accessible to the press all along, even though his stiff military style would prevent anyone from predicting that he will ever be a press darling.

During his "second-man" posting, Wiranto, the father of three children, once faced a tough task -- probably the toughest job ever during that time -- in the tense aftermath of the revocation of the licenses of three weekly publications, DeTik, Tempo, and Editor, in June. Hendro was then reportedly in the U.S. to see his children studying there. Thus, Wiranto presumably ran the show. Some reporters may still remember how painful those days were.

Hendro's tenure was marked with a series of innovations. Not long after his swearing in, the press publicized a report that two military policemen regularly blackmailed bus drivers in North Jakarta. Hendro responded with the unprecedented measure of letting the press cover the sacking of one of the officers, who was found guilty. This was followed with the controversial "Salute Month" campaign, under which many officers were punished by having to do pushups alongside the streets in front of the public for either forgetting to salute their seniors or having hair too long for military standards.

"We should correct ourselves first, then the others," Hendro said.

Some officers detested the policy, saying it was not humane to punish adults in public places.

In dealing with the recalcitrant problem of student brawls, Hendro ordered the setting up of schools at each military district with funds from several governmental agencies. At these schools, trouble-making high school students were interned and disciplined, military style, for one to four weeks. At the end of the schooling, the press was invited to cover the "graduation" ceremony at which the students tearfully apologized to their parents.

The measure was more acceptable to the public than the ones taken by previous commanders, who shaved the heads of students involved in brawls, or planned to broadcast their pictures and announce their names on television.

"With the shaving of their heads, the boys were taught the wrong lesson on violence and force. They learned that the strong or armed are the powerful," recalled noted human rights advocate Frans H. Winarta.

After several months, however, there were no more reports about the continuation of the schooling program. With Rp 4 million reportedly needed to correct just one student that way, the program may have proved too expensive.

Hendro's most successful program may be the "coffee morning", during which he shared a modest breakfast with visitors from the public, ranging from workers and students to evicted residents, at the military headquarters. He used this morning forum to informally attempt to solve their problems. With the measure, Hendro could reportedly prevent many public protests and strikes.

Later, the program was imitated by many governmental agencies.

Hendro's last action was to launch the large-scale anti-crime "Cleansing Operation" which started in April. It was triggered by the murder of an army general by a group of young drunkards in East Jakarta and was thereby at first aimed at cracking down on the booze trade and seizing sharp weapons and firearms.

Later, he marshaled all ABRI forces into the operation to combat all the evils upon which organized crime feeds and flourishes, including forcible debt collection, prostitution and gambling.

Now, Wiranto is running the show.

Will he cut down the military's involvement in police work, or maintain the status quo on the basis of the consideration that the police lack personnel and that Operation Cleansing has yet to be formally terminated? Traditionally, the Jakarta military has taken part in handling the acute problem of juvenile delinquency and fighting crime anytime it shows alarming tendencies.

Jakartans are waiting for the new commander to prove he is no less creative than his predecessor.