July 22, 1999
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| July 22, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia Suddenly candidate Wiranto can't stop talking By Bradley Martin Asia Times Online Although he came into office showing signs that he was attuned to theneed to reduce the military's role, Indonesian armed forces chief andDefense Minister Wiranto in recent months had been all but silent onthat theme. Silent until last Saturday, that is, when - judging from areport by Jakarta's Kompas - he talked and talked and talked on thesubject. Speaking before a meeting in Yogyakarta organized by some academics,Wiranto stated flatly that the military could no longer serve as thecountry's prime ''role model.'' TNI, as the military is called, has aglorious heritage from revolutionary days, Wiranto said. But currenttimes are ''different from the old days when people thought highly ofTNI, when they thought well of its intellectual capabilities, of itsfighting spirit, which made of the armed forces a model . . . We knowit and in the end TNI is not able to be a role model any longer." Is it starting to sound as if Wiranto were planning to return thesoldiers to their barracks and get them out of politics? TNI would liketo reestablish its original role, he said - the one it was always meantfor, mainly a defense and security role. So far, so good. Oh, and itwould like to shape a prosperous nation. No, that doesn't sound quitelike a return to the barracks. ''The making of a prosperous nation is avocation not to be avoided or to be obstructed,'' Wiranto told theassembled intellectuals. ''TNI soldiers have the same duty, they have thesame rights . . . to make this a prosperous nation.'' That means movinginto the social field, the general said. ''Why can't we take on the roleof imam in the mosque, go to the villages and join the farmers in thefields? No, we won't be staying in the barracks. But, because of ourcalling and sense of responsibility, we are not so sure. Tell us whatrole to perform." Whatever the shift in role may turn out to involve, Wiranto was quotedas saying, the armed forces have developed four new ''paradigms.'' Thefirst is that the military doesn't have to be always at the forefront,doesn't always have to play the role of leading or stabilizing thecountry. ''That's all in the past,'' Wiranto said, according to the Kompasreport. Number two is that, from a role of direct influence, the military hasmoved to exert INDIRECT influence. It need not occupy positions but caninfluence ideas, as Wiranto put it. So, said the general, go ahead andtake some of our positions away. ''If a change of the [military] governoris warranted, go ahead. If the regent of Bantul is found guilty, goahead and punish him. If our position in parliament has been reducedfrom 100 chairs to 75, then to 38 [as it has], just go ahead." Kompas doesn't say what the third paradigm might be, but the fourth isthat the military is always ready for political role-sharing. At anotherseminar in Bandung, Kompas reports, Wiranto claimed the armed forces hadalways been neutral in previous political movements. Right. But now themilitary will be proactive, he is quoted as saying. He rejected thenotion that TNI's neutrality means abstaining from using its 38 votes inparliament. And Wiranto warned, in effect, at the Yogyakarta sessionthat the military couldn't be pushed too far and too fast out of thecorridors of power: ''If we have to give in, we give in. If we are totake another direction, we'll do it - but don't rub it in. If tempersare ruffled, we'll be in trouble . . . Imagine if the forces are goingto protest for two days. I don't know what would happen." That may well be true. But the way Wiranto reportedly presented it madeclear that there is an additional, unspoken theme: only one figurecurrently mentioned as a prospect for top leadership knows how tohandle the military - Wiranto himself, who is widely tipped to becomevice president regardless of who becomes the new president in Novemberelections. | |||||||||
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