Wiranto meets opposition to control unrest: Marzuki

JAKARTA (JP): General Wiranto's meeting on Sunday with opposition figures including Abdurrahman Wahid and Amien Rais was part of the former's campaign to mobilize support in confronting "the pro-status quo elements" now wreaking havoc in the country, an observer says.

The chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, Marzuki Darusman, speculated that Wiranto, who is Armed Forces (ABRI) commander, might need the civilian leaders' support to "counter" pressure within ABRI that originated from groups linked to the past regime of Soeharto.

He insisted he was not necessarily saying that Soeharto was behind a series of violent incidents recently, but they "definitely involve people who have a stake in the status quo and who may have to give up their privileges because of reform and political change".

Wiranto, who is also the Minister of Defense and Security, also met with Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, Yogyakarta monarch and governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, and the leader of the popular faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri. They came out of the meeting vowing to save the nation from falling apart.

Marzuki said Wiranto also needs support from the civilian leaders "to make a break with the past regime of Soeharto."

"I think we are nearing a point where Wiranto will have to make a break with his past... and he needs the greatest support now from these civilian elite figures to be able to distance himself from that past.

"I think the military has a complete picture of what is going on in the country in terms of outbreaks of unrest now and it is not a matter of whether or not they are going to take action but it is a matter of when they will be in a position to do so," Marzuki said.

Marzuki, who is also chairman of the Golkar faction in the People's Consultative Assembly, said the Armed Forces were now under pressure to disclose what they knew and what the public was entitled to know.

"The meeting with the civil leaders was a step towards making that possible so that whatever announcement it comes out with will be supported by groups that have the best interests of the country at heart," Marzuki said.

He also said the action taken by Wiranto on Sunday "did relate directly or indirectly" to a statement by Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono earlier that certain elements of the military were involved in the violence and rioting throughout the country.

"Professor Juwono's statement some time ago indicated clearly the identity of groups of people who would be implicated in a thorough investigation of the rioting," Marzuki said, without elaborating.

Answering questions from the foreign press on the shooting at the Semanggi cloverleaf which had claimed at least five student lives on Nov. 13, Juwono said on Nov. 20 that "there are rogue elements within the military who are interested in further discrediting the current defense minister Gen. Wiranto".

Marzuki, however, criticized the Sunday meeting as it was only attended by Muslim and Javanese informal leaders.

"The meeting was not acceptable in the national context, and Wiranto must hold further meetings with more people from a wider spectrum of ethnic and religious backgrounds," Marzuki told the Post.

Meanwhile, political observers Ichlasul Amal and Heru Nugroho of the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Rubiyanto Misman of the Jenderal Sudirman University in Central Java town of Purwokerto, and Soehardjo S.S. of the Diponegoro University in Semarang separately hailed the Sunday meeting, but reminded people of further tasks ahead.

Amal said the meeting actually constituted "a new mandate" for the Armed Forces to resolve the spate of violence. "It now gives them a new moral strength to be repressive in handling violence, including capturing and punishing masterminds," he said.

Heru, however, did not believe the meeting would solve problems. "Formal and informal leaders all have to act in concrete ways, raising people's awareness against attempts to sow hatred among them," he said.

Rubiyanto said the meeting showed that the civilian leaders still trusted Wiranto to initiate appropriate actions to handle the spreading unrest.

"Wiranto must respond to this trust. He should heed the aspirations of those leaders," he said.

Soehardjo said the meeting could help defuse tension in the political elite. "It would be even better if such a meeting could be held on a larger scale," he suggested.

Another observer, Susilo Utomo of Diponegoro University, agreed with Marzuki that the meeting should be extended to include figures from other groups such as the Buddhist, Christian and Hindu communities. (byg/har/23/45/44)