Wiranto warns against fueling extremism

JAKARTA (JP): Former Indonesian military chief Gen. (ret.) Wiranto warned on Friday that Indonesia was slowly being driven to the edge of a cliff by political leaders mobilizing "seas of people that could lead to a flood of extremism".

Addressing diplomats and businessmen at a major conference, Wiranto also compared President Abdurrahman Wahid's leadership to Soeharto's autocracy, and claimed that corruption, collusion and nepotism were "alive almost everywhere".

His warning against inciting radical groups came a day after Abdurrahman, speaking at the same conference, predicted a "nationwide rebellion" if the House of Representatives sought his impeachment.

Abdurrahman loyalists in East Java have defied police orders to stop "war training", and the President claimed on Wednesday that up to "400,000 people from all over Java, Lampung and Sumatra" would flock to Jakarta unless the House backs down.

Wiranto, who was sacked last year as coordinating minister for political and security affairs after being investigated for alleged human rights abuses in East Timor, said Indonesia was struggling through one of the most difficult times in its history.

In a speech titled Lessons from the Past, he said today's crisis could be considered worse than in the 1950s under founding president Sukarno, when political parties also held mass rallies and formed militias.

He outlined faults in both the Old and New Orders, and suggested the current regime appeared unable to learn from those mistakes.

"Today we find a mobilization of seas of people which could lead to a flood of extremism," he told the conference on Indonesia's future, organized by the consultancy firm, Van Zorge, Heffernan and Associates.

"Our politicians, who have called on their followers to form ranks, have driven us to the edge of a cliff.

"Such maneuvers have made it nearly impossible to form a consensus and solve the many national problems we face."

Indonesia was entering a new phase of history, "that of the mobilization of vast masses of people who force one opinion (on others) and the forming of paramilitary groups and militias that openly prepare for civil war".

"This is something that could prove dangerous, not only for our democracy but for the very life of our republic."

The communist coup of 1965 has remained a black stain on Indonesia's history, in which people died needlessly and unjustly, Wiranto said.

"This happened because our sense of national unity was crushed, it happened because party reality and the working of ideology was placed above national interest.

"So let us ask ourselves, are we going to repeat this horrifying mistake as well?"

After the fall of the New Order regime there had been a widely held conviction that the new Indonesia would provide a new life, "one that was better and brighter", said Wiranto, who rose to power under Soeharto.

"After nearly two years, though, where do we find ourselves?

"We find ourselves further and further from what we had or hoped for.

"The reform movement, which should have provided us with the means for greater democracy, has been turned instead into a tool (for a leadership) that is justifying itself with rhetoric and is spoiling our democracy.

Wiranto said the new government had not simply repeated old errors, "but had in fact added to them and so made it even more difficult for Indonesia to fulfill its dream of becoming a developed nation, capable of contributing in a positive way on the world stage".

"If the current government could simply change its image to a problem-solver rather than a problem-maker, then maybe there could be the possibility of preventing more serious conflict."

Signs of personal rule by President Abdurrahman were becoming more evident, he said. They could be seen in the way he had allegedly been involved in a number of legal cases, his interference in banking law, and his habit of breaching agreements with political parties.

"We need to ask ourselves whether or not the lessons we learnt about the ... personal rule under the regimes of president Sukarno and president Soeharto have been sufficient to educate us."

Separately, East Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sutanto said 14,000 police officers would be deployed across East Java starting Wednesday to anticipate the expected gatherings of pro- Abdurrahman supporters.

"My officers will comb the streets for anybody leaving for Jakarta carrying a weapon," Sutanto told reporters at National Police Headquarters on Friday.

He added that sources had informed him that thousands of members from the Defenders of Truth ready-to-die force have entered Jakarta and are being sheltered in Islamic boarding schools across the capital.

"I myself don't have concrete evidence as yet...but we have to take extra measures in any case." (ptr/ylt/prb)