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Arresting decay in
Indonesia
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Four presidents and seven
years since the fall of Suharto's authoritarian
regime in Indonesia, his New Order acolytes are
still cast as the dalang, the unseen master
controlling the characters in Javanese shadow
puppet shows. A presidential fact-finding team's
investigation into the murder of Indonesia's
foremost human-rights activist provides fresh
fodder for conspiracy theorists. Reaction to those
findings highlights the staying power of New Order
remnants and the impact of the cabal, regardless
of whether it exists or not.
Munir Said
Thalib, a leading critic of New Order abuses, died
on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam aboard
Indonesia's flag carrier, Garuda, last September.
(See Asia Times Online, An Indonesian murder
mystery, November 16, 2004) He was on
his way to the Netherlands to begin scholarship
studies for a law degree. At age 38, Munir had
distinguished himself as the nation's most
forceful crusader against New Order brutality,
from activists' mysterious disappearances to
shootings of students to massacres in East Timor.
Those activities made Munir the target of
death threats and mob rampages against his office.
His opponents apparently found their mark aboard
flight GA 974. Munir became violently ill on the
leg of the flight between Singapore and Amsterdam
and died. The autopsy in the Netherlands revealed
a massive, fatal dose of arsenic in his stomach,
almost certainly fed to him during the flight.
Intelligence links
The
fact-finding panel headed by a police general,
featuring legal experts and human-rights
activists, delivered its report to President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on June 23. The team's
six-month investigation found evidence that
officials of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN
by its Indonesian acronym) were "involved in a
conspiracy to murder Munir." The 100-page report
was not made public, but team members revealed key
findings.
The team corroborated leading
suspect Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's claims of
links to BIN. Pollycarpus, a Garuda pilot, rode on
the Jakarta-Singapore leg of GA 974 under the
pretence of a phony assignment and gave his
business class seat to Munir. The presidential
panel found more than 30 phone calls between
Pollycarpus and BIN numbers before and after the
September 7 murder. They also heard testimony
about Pollycarpus' previous involvement with BIN
operatives. Most damning, the team said it
uncovered documents linked to intelligence
officials outlining four scenarios for murdering
Munir, including poisoning him aboard an aircraft.
Yudhoyono, a general under Suharto but a
PhD rather than a dalang, accepted the
team's report and reiterated his commitment to
bring the murderers to justice. Yudhoyono's
government has fried some big fish on corruption
charges, including a provincial governor, but it
has steered clear of military stalwarts. The
team's findings, however, chart a collision course
with Abdullah Makhmud Hendropriyono, a New Order
army general who headed BIN at the time of Munir's
murder.
Still more equal than
others
Ironically, the limited fruits of
reformasi give new ammunition to its
enemies. Separation of power restrictions designed
to prevent the return of Suharto's virtual
dictatorship help his supporters remain above the
law. For example, Hendropriyono refused to honor
three summonses from the fact-finding commission,
claiming he wasn't subject to the authority of a
body created by "merely a presidential decree".
In a bit of doublespeak worthy of a George
Orwell novel, Hendropriyono explained his defiance
of the team's summonses: "This way, I'm showing
everyone that the authorities can no longer summon
anyone without good justification. The authorities
should no longer scare people in this new
atmosphere of democracy."
Despite
Indonesia's progress along the road to
reformasi , including the military
renouncing its formal political role, the armed
forces - the backbone of Suharto's regime - remain
beyond civilian control and most loyal to their
own membership, past and present. The military is
linked to many unpunished crimes: the 1998 student
shootings and mob violence that led to Suharto's
resignation, massacres in East Timor, outbreaks of
religious violence and radical Muslim militias in
the Malukus and Central Sulawesi. Discussions of
these events usually focus on possible New Order
loyalist involvement, rather than on the
devastating impact of the violence.
Jose
Manuel Tesoro covered Indonesia for Asiaweek from
1997 to 2000 and wrote The Invisible Palace
(See Asia Times Online, Reporter's murder a shadow puppet
farce, September 11, 2004), examining
the 1996 unsolved murder of a newspaper reporter
in Yogyakarta whose articles had angered a
powerful local official. Tesoro says looking for
conspiracy theories may be a pointless distraction
from what really matters.
"[T]he networks
and habits formed during the New Order didn't go
away just because Suharto stepped down. The lack
of respect for human life, the arrogance that
comes with feeling untouchable by the law, the
knowledge that nearly anyone or anything can be
bought - all this still exists in many places in
the elite," Tesoro, now a student at Harvard Law
School, observes. "You'll see it in the minister's
son who thinks nothing of shooting a waiter for a
supposed slight. Or the corrupt judge or cop who
thinks bribery and extortion come with the job.
None of this has to be centrally directed by
Suharto or some general or whatever, but the
effects are still there and still corrosive."
Arresting decay
Munir was one of
the people trying to stop the corrosion that
resonates throughout Indonesian society and beyond
its borders. As important as solving Munir's
murder is for Indonesia's fledgling freedom, it's
just as important for its economy, for its
Association of Southeast Asian Nations neighbors
and the world at large. As the world's fourth-most
populous nation located on the strategic Malacca
Strait and at the borders of Asia, Indonesia has
geopolitical weight along with its symbolic
significance as the largest predominantly Muslim
democracy. Indonesia has the potential to flourish
or to spiral downward toward economic and social
chaos, orchestrated or otherwise.
Rule of
law is what will tip the balance. Equality under
the law is still far away when a tourist carrying
4.2 kilograms of marijuana gets 20 years in jail -
and prosecutors appeal the sentence as too lenient
- while Tommy Suharto gets 15 years for hiring
thugs to kill a judge who ruled against him in a
corruption case - reduced to 10 years by the
Supreme Court within days of the Munir report, and
with release likely after serving less than four
years. Of course, it's progress that the former
president's son was convicted at all.
Particularly in civil cases, verdicts
remain for sale to the highest bidder. Police,
though vastly improved since their separation from
the military, and prosecutors can still be induced
to harass for the right price. That makes
Indonesia a ridiculous place to invest for
foreigners and Indonesians alike and explains a
good deal about why Indonesia's economy has failed
to recover from the regional crisis of 1997-98.
Persistent poverty and powerlessness are
dangerous conditions for any nation. In Indonesia
those circumstances are giving radical Islam
growing support and disproportionate political
influence. The threat is more terrorist violence
in Indonesia and a terrorist breeding ground for
attacks globally. To counteract that threat,
Indonesia and its friends need police, military,
and especially intelligence services that are
trustworthy and pursuing the government's agenda.
Regardless of whether BIN is proven to have been
behind Munir's murder, the findings to date
suggest how far it is from being a reliable
partner for anyone outside its elite circle.
Rule of law was at the heart of Munir's
work. It would be a fitting tribute, and perhaps
his most lasting contribution, if bringing his
killer(s) to justice marked a turning point for
rule of law in Indonesia.
Gary
LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and
print writer and editor in the US and Asia.
Longtime editor of investor rights advocate
eRaider.com, he's also a contributor to Slate and
Salon.com.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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