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.
