The rise of retired generals: Last wake-up call for reformists

The rise of retired generals: Last wake-up call for reformists

Ardimas Sasdi, Berkeley, California

Worried about the return of the military to power through the
July 5 election and the subsequent resurgence of an authoritarian
regime, respected Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Ma'arif criticized
civilians for not working hand in hand. He urged them to unite to
halt the troubling trend.

"The rise of military leaders is a logical consequence of the
failure of the civilian government. Civilian leaders failed to be
introspective and this opened the way for the military to return
to power," Ma'arif told Tempo Interaktif on Friday.

Ma'arif, a scholar who was educated in the U.S., laid part of
the blame on civilian intellectuals who had studied in the U.S.
and Europe. Such figures preferred to establish their own parties
rather than uniting as one strong force to build a democratic and
prosperous country, he said.

"Observe that such parties only gained less than 1 percent of
the vote as they could not perceive the psyche of the nation. So
the (imminent) return of the military to power is something that
we must accept," Ma'arif said.

Legislator Pramono Anung Wibowo of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)
concurred with Ma'arif saying the future of democracy would be in
jeopardy if a former military figure were elected president. The
democracy evolved six years ago after the fall of president
Soeharto, who ran Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years

Nurcholish Madjid, another U.S.-trained scholar, whom many
praise for his wisdom, said people had reason to worry over the
possible resurgence of an authoritarian regime. However, he
quickly explained the nomination of ex-military officers as
presidential candidates, such as Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party and Gen. (ret) Wiranto of the
Golkar Party, should not be simplistically understood as the
return of an authoritarian regime.

Nurcholish said that Susilo and Wiranto were now civilians
and that a leader cannot be judged solely on his background. He
cited the high reputation of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S
president after World War II, although he came from the military.

Polls consistently show that Susilo -- who has also secured
the tacit endorsement of many Western countries, though he has
been accused of human rights violations, like many other
Indonesian generals -- is more popular than other presidential
candidates, including Megawati.

People began to seriously worry about the rise of military
power only after Wiranto won the Golkar convention last week in
what could be viewed as a veiled coup against the leadership of
Akbar Tandjung.

The victory automatically confirmed Wiranto as presidential
candidate of Golkar, which gained the highest percentage of votes
(22 percent) in the legislative election on April 5.

The chance of Wiranto winning is big, if not almost certain.
The party's experienced lobbyists will likely coax smaller
parties to coalesce and woo the poor, who comprise over 40
percent of Indonesia's 225 million population.

Experts believed that Golkar will allocate all resources,
including money, to regain the presidency in 2004 as it would be
more difficult for the party to make a comeback in 2009.

And, if the people are easily swayed by the promise of
Golkar's money, only the government is to be blame for this. It
failed to improve the economy, combat corruption and maintain
security -- which was widely reported by the press.

Not ignoring the failures of civilian governments after
Soeharto, the current situation in Indonesia is similar to the
trend in other countries. Results of a three-year survey of
18,600 people in 18 Latin American countries, except Cuba, by the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) showed that the
majority of people in these nations would chose authoritarian
rule over democracy if it eased poverty.

Interestingly, the UNDP report -- which was published by U.S.
media on Thursday -- found that most Latin America leaders felt
they were slowly losing the ability to shape policy in their own
countries due to the rising influence of America and
international lending institutions like the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Indonesia undoubtedly has similar problems to the 18 countries
but luckily there is still time, although not much. This is the
last wake-up call for reform forces -- reformist leaders,
students and non-governmental organizations -- to mobilize and
set aside their differences. They must assemble to arrive at a
common platform in order to halt the military's return to power
and an authoritarian regime.

The writer, a Staff Writer of The Jakarta Post, is a visiting
scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of
California, Berkeley. He can be contacted at
ajambak@calmail.berkeley.edu