The general and the cleric

The general and the cleric

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

The pairing of Gen. (ret) Wiranto and the cleric Solahuddin
Wahid won the all-important top spot on the ballot papers during
the draw held by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Wiranto, born in Yogyakarta on April 4, 1947, became the
candidate of the Golkar Party after he surprisingly defeated
party leader Akbar Tandjung during the party's presidential
convention.

Wiranto starts off on solid ground in the race following the
party's gains in the April 5 legislative election, when it
garnered the largest number of votes at 24.5 million, or 21.6
percent of the total votes cast.

The ticket received a major boost when the National Awakening
Party (PKB), co-founded by Solahuddin's brother, former president
Abdurrahman Wahid, formally declared its support for the pair
last week. The PKB's main support base is Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
in which Solahuddin is an executive; he is also a former deputy
chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
This has led to controversy as a commission team led by
Solahuddin had tried in vain on a number of occasions to summon
former senior officers including Wiranto, following its
investigations into the riots that preceded the resignation of
president Soeharto in 1999.

Wiranto started his military career as an infantry platoon
commander upon his graduation from the Military Academy in 1968.
His postings included serving as Soeharto's adjutant in 1984,
commander of the Jakarta garrison in 1993, and Jakarta military
commander in 1994.

Soeharto named Wiranto military chief in the last months of
his rule, and he kept this position under Soeharto's successor,
B.J. Habibie. The subsequent president, Abdurrahman Wahid, named
Wiranto, by then officially retired from the military, as defense
minister.

Wahid then sacked Wiranto in February 2000 after a human
rights commission team found he had failed to ensure security in
East Timor. United Nations-funded prosecutors in East Timor have
charged Wiranto with command responsibility for army-backed
atrocities against independence supporters in the then-Indonesian
province in 1999. An arrest warrant has been issued recently.

Solahuddin was born in Jombang, East Java, on Sept. 11, 1942.
He began his organizational career as a member of the NU's youth
movement, PMII, when he studied at the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB) in 1964. In 1999 he was appointed as the vice
chairman of NU in 1999.

He then became vice-chairman of the Association of Indonesian
Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in 2001 before taking up his post at
the rights commission in 2002.

Recently, Solahuddin was quoted as saying that he did not want
to become a mere figurehead vice president. He said that he had
asked Wiranto and Golkar prior to his joining the Wiranto ticket
to give him a special assignments so as to ensure the realization
of the pairing's campaign promises of improving law enforcement
and human rights, and eradicating of corruption.