March 8, 2000 Indonesia's President Reduces the Power of the Military By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's reformist President Abdurrahman Wahid revoked two laws today that for decades gave the military sweeping powers to carry out checks on senior politicians and bureaucrats. The intelligence body within the military and a law that gave it power to investigate the background of all parliamentarians and other senior government officials were no longer needed, Cabinet Secretary Marsilam Simanjuntak said. Speaking after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Marsilam said the president believes the agency and the law just led to complications. The laws were set up by former dictator President Suharto, who used them to keep tabs on other politicians, said military analyst Salim Said. Anybody who applied for a senior job within the government or as a politician was forced to undergo questioning. "The main thing they wanted to see was whether you were pro-Communist," he said. Also today, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs discounted fears that the once all-powerful armed forces might move against Wahid's civilian administration. Indonesia's military now acknowledges the legitimacy of the country's new government and realizes that a coup attempt would trigger a bloodbath, Stanley Roth said. "They are acutely aware ... that this is a popularly run and elected government and that any efforts to overthrow this government by force would bring the people out onto the streets and require the type of bloodbath that the military in Indonesia is simply not willing to do," he said. During a tense standoff last month between Wahid and former armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke sparked fears that a coup was imminent when he publicly warned the military not to move against Wahid. Roth today accused the media of overstating Holbrooke's remarks. However, he warned that Indonesia was still at a "vulnerable stage" and its stability was threatened by its ailing economy. Indonesia's economy collapsed in 1997, plunging the world's fourth most populous nation into its worst economic crisis in a generation. Wahid, who took office last October, has promised to reform the country's economy and boost investment. Wahid paid an unprecedented visit today to Suharto, who has so far stymied a government corruption probe by claiming he is too sick to be questioned. Suharto, who is 78 and suffered two strokes last year, is suspected of misusing funds belonging to several charitable foundations during his 32-year reign. Looking healthy and walking unaided, the former autocrat smiled to dozens of waiting reporters before greeting Wahid with a hug in front of his mansion in the capital, Jakarta. The two met for an hour.
