Officers welcome Soeharto's 'clobber' statement
JAKARTA (JP): Two senior military officers and a retired general expressed support yesterday for President Soeharto's threat to "clobber" anyone attempting to unseat him in an unconstitutional manner.
Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid said Soeharto's statements indicated the President wanted the national leadership succession to proceed in a lawful manner.
"Corrections to the current democracy should be made in accordance with the Constitution," Syarwan said after accompanying ABRI Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung on an inspection of 60,000 personnel being prepared to secure the May 29 general election.
"O, yes! We'll clobber anyone who violates (the laws)," Feisal said, using the exact words Soeharto had used.
Soeharto said in Boyolali, Central Java, Friday that he would clobber anybody who tried to use unconstitutional means to unseat him. It was his second such warning, with the first issued on his way home from an East European trip in 1989.
When asked about individuals or groups that Soeharto's comments might have been aimed at, Syarwan said ABRI had them identified.
"The offenders, small and big, exist both within and outside the system."
He identified the potential offenders as those who had been alienated from the power structure, who were dissatisfied with the present social and economical situation and those who were "pure burglars."
He also dismissed suggestions that Soeharto's statement, in which he said he was willing to step down only in a constitutional way, was an attempt to gain public sympathy.
"For a president and the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, it's natural to issue a warning like President Soeharto has done," he said.
Political observer Gen. (ret) Rudini said Soeharto's statement could have been prompted by information about a "plan for unconstitutional action."
"President Soeharto has his own intelligence apparatus to monitor (any planned law violations)," said Rudini, who is now chairman of the Institute for Strategic Studies of Indonesia.
Rudini, a former minister of home affairs, said the President's remarks were a warning to those potential lawbreakers.
He said he did not know whom Soeharto was referring to, but added they included people who had distributed pamphlets asking the President to resign before his term of office was over.
"By our laws, it's possible to ask a president to resign, but it has to be done through a general assembly of the People's Consultative Assembly," he said.
The Assembly could unseat the President only if he was proven to have failed to account for his leadership.
Rudini also dismissed speculation that Soeharto made the statements out of fear over the latest developments in the social and political situation, including the spate of unrest in the last few months.
"The President was obviously concerned about a possible repeat of the 1965 tragedy when the country was rocked by the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party's abortive coup," he said. (imn/04)