On loyalty of the military

On loyalty of the military

Our present President is the first to be elected
democratically and according to existing laws. In my opinion, he
is the country's first legal President and should remain in
office as long as the Constitution stipulates.

The President is very confident that the Indonesian people are
solidly behind him and that he has nothing to fear politically,
so from that point of view he is looking forward to beginning the
reconstruction of our devastated Indonesia, which have suffered a
lot as a consequence of more than 30 years of misrule.

But I have a feeling (and I hope that I am completely wrong)
that our President does not trust the Indonesian Military,
especially the Army. Why, I don't know. So far the Army has never
shown any indication of trying to disturb the legal government of
President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Rumors of an intended coup are circulating. Generals are
supposed to have organized a secret meeting in Lao Tse, if I am
not wrong. However, the President has never denied these rumors
and defended the loyalty of the Army. Recently, the President
proclaimed an emergency situation, which caught the community off
balance. Then the President announced some military commanders
were preparing to curtail his power, but he was not worried
because the people were solidly behind him.

I wonder about the source of these rumors, especially those
concerning the disloyalty of the Army, and what the aim of all
these rumors are. The President has shaken up the Army and begun
to curtail its power.

The military spokesman, an Army general, was replaced by an
Air Force man, which would be a normal move if these rumors did
not exist. The Indonesian Military chief, again an Army general,
was replaced by a Navy man,which again is very normal if not for
the circulating rumors. We see steps taken to curtail the power
of the Army, and we read and hear news about plans being prepared
by the Army to do things which never even entered the minds of
the Army's leadership.

The Army is loyal to the state and will stay loyal. This was
expressed by the deputy military chief, Gen. Fachrul Rozi. With
this statement and the President's knowledge that the people are
solidly behind him, Abdurrahman has nothing to fear. So why then
did the President announce that 16 regional military commanders
were planning a coup? The President (although it is his right to
say) should not make public this information, rather keeping it
to himself.

Slowly we are beginning to know our President inside out and
we should not worry too much about his statements, because behind
these statements he has his own motives. His followers claim that
Abdurrahman is a brilliant tactician, and is a master in
confusing his opponents. We must support him wholeheartedly and
give him the chance to change our community and make Indonesia
strong and prosperous.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta