Kopassus has a special place in RI history

Kopassus has a special place in RI history

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Kopassus - Inside Indonesia's Special Forces,
By Ken Conboy,
Equinox Publishing (Asia), 2002, 320pp

Some see them as heroes, others as villains. Some fear and hate
them, others admire and hold them in high esteem. However one
views Kopassus, no one can deny that the Indonesian Army's
Special Forces (Kopassus) are special indeed.

They are not necessarily special because of their skills or
their performance; other countries have special forces too, and
needless to say, some have performed better or are in much better
shape.

Kopassus is special because it has played a pivotal role in
Indonesia's modern history since its inception in 1952, and
because, for better or for worse, Kopassus and its men have also
helped to shape that history.

Ken Conboy's latest work is a brave attempt to look at
Kopassus' place in Indonesian history.

I say brave because in spite of its high profile in the
history of the Indonesian Military, Kopassus is a complex subject
that is not easy to comprehend.

Given the often secretive and controversial nature of its
work -- including special warfare and military intelligence --
few outsiders have had a chance to obtain a glimpse of how the
Indonesian Army's Special Forces think and operate.

Conboy is one of those few outsiders privy to the inner
workings and inner thinking of the command, and of its many
commandants over all these years.

As the title suggests, the book tries to tell the story of the
Indonesian Military's most fearsome command from the inside.

Since many of the military campaigns in which Kopassus has
been involved have been written about and are well documented,
some might dismiss the likelihood of finding anything startling.

But no one has ever attempted to write from the perspective of
Kopassus, from the eyes of the people who made up the command.

Conboy combines his analytical skills (he is a military
analyst by training) with the views and thinking of the dozens of
Kopassus officers he interviewed in writing this book.

The strength of the book therefore comes from giving both an
outside-looking-in and an inside-looking-out view of all the
national events in which Kopassus has been involved since 1952.

The author takes a look at Kopassus from 1952 to 1993, and
with good reason: events after 1993 are too recent to write about
objectively, and too recent for any of the people involved to
speak openly and frankly about, the way their predecessors did in
helping the author reconstruct history.

Still, this is a pity because Kopassus became more
controversial and more involved in political power plays after
1993, right up to the end of the Soeharto regime in 1998. Widely
discredited after that because of its close association with the
authoritarian leader, Kopassus has been struggling ever since to
repair its battered image and regain its public standing.

Inside Indonesia's Special Forces helps us understand Kopassus
better. And understanding the evolution of Kopassus explains why
the force is the way it is today. And we learn that this
evolution cannot be separated from the individuals who led and
gave the force the vision that charted its historical path.

The idea to set up the Special Forces, for example, came from
Slamet Riyadi, the Central Java lieutenant colonel, while he was
fighting the Dutch colonial forces in Maluku in 1949.

He was so impressed with his adversaries' fighting skills that
he told his colleague, Col. Alex Kawilarang, while they were
ducking Dutch bullets, "I want some of those for myself."

Riyadi never lived to see his idea come to fruition as he was
killed in a later battle, but Kawilarang picked it up three years
later when he was chief of the Siliwangi Military Command in West
Java in Bandung. Thus the Army's Special Forces were born.

It was not a smooth path, and typically, like any evolving
organization, it was a hard struggle wrought with personal
rivalries, competition from other services and ultimately
politicking, within the military and national politics.

Political infighting aside, the Special Forces quickly made
their mark by spearheading some of the government's military
campaigns: putting down regional rebellions in the late 1950s,
the Irian Jaya (Papua) campaign in 1960, the confrontation
against British Malaya in 1964, the crushing of the communist
forces in 1965, the East Timor military campaign in 1975, and the
subsequent campaigns against terrorism, or anyone considered a
threat to the Soeharto regime.

Kopassus' main role in shaping history came in 1965 when it
became the backbone of the Army, then politically fractured
between pro and anticommunist camps, to crush the abortive coup
blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The force paved the way for Soeharto's rise to power, and
subsequently helped him stay in power for over three decades.

While Kopassus' contribution to Indonesian history has been
significant, not everything was glory for the force. Conboy's
book gives a sober account of both the failures and the
successes, the ups and downs of Kopassus.

The force's contributions were not limited to the military
operations they were involved in. Probably much more significant
was its success in producing some of the finest and most
disciplined Army men, who went on to become statesmen long after
they retired from Kopassus and the military.

A quick glance at the list of Kopassus men who appear in the
book reads like a who's who of the Indonesian Military.

Gen. Benny Murdani, although he never held the leadership
baton, was one of the most prominent Kopassus alumni, having
served in the command from its early years.

Other figures to have come from the command include Sarwo Edhi
Wibowo, Feisal Tandjung, Kentot Harseno, Hendropriyono, Luhut
Pandjaitan, Sintong Pandjaitan and Yunus Yosfiah.

Although Conboy based his book largely on official documents,
including declassified U.S. intelligence reports, his lengthy
interviews with many of the past Kopassus leaders allowed him to
reconstruct history as seen from inside the command. The many
anecdotes in the book help to sustain the reader's interest.

Conboy is not a stranger to Indonesia or the Indonesian
Military. His background as a military analyst and his work in
Jakarta for the last 10 years as a consultant allowed him to
become acquainted with the people that he writes about.

Inside is a powerful narration of the history of the
military's fearsome Special Forces.

Reading the book, one gets the feeling that Kopassus is far
from becoming history. It will continue to play a major role in
shaping Indonesia's history for many more years.

The sequel to this book, if there is one, will be just as
interesting to read as this present volume.