Wiranto warns against fueling extremism

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)