http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02/14/"abs"--a-rebe\ llion-disguise.html <http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02/14/%E2%80%9Cabs%E2%80%9D-%E2\ %80%93-a-rebellion-disguise.html> "ABS" A Rebellion in disguise? Aboeprijadi Santoso , JAKARTA | Sat, 02/14/2009 10:33 AM | Opinion
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent a clear warning to some (former) officers who allegedly conspired to campaign against him. "ABS" (Asal Bukan `S') is the code: "Choose anyone but `S'". Many retired generals supported the President saying the military should remain politically neutral. But why, in doing so, did they, unlike the President, vehemently deny the existence of the ABS group of (ex) officers? Former TNI chief Gen. (ret) Endriartono Sutarto said the military was politically neutral and will remain so. Indeed, both Endriartono, when he was the TNI chief, and the President have repeatedly reminded the corps not to dabble in politics. Last week, Army Chief Gen. Agustadi Sasongko explicitly stated the same principle. Other retired generals sang the same chorus. If such a group of rebel (ex) officers existed, the President should investigate and order the TNI chief to arrest them. But that was precisely what the President didn't do. In other words, they supported the President as a matter of principle, but doubted, to say the least, the attitude he adopted. Issuing a warning without taking firm steps seems to them to confirm the President's image: a doubter. The principle of a "politically neutral military" is imperative, it should inevitably be supported, but this doesn't necessarily entail firm support for the President. So what went wrong, and where? Historically, the Indonesian Military is an institution with a dynamic past. Some experts have claimed there were few political upheavals or rebellions that did not involve some Army elements on the part of the rebels. The Dutch-inspired Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) separatist rebellion in the late 1950s is one example. By contrast, the PRRI-Permesta Rebellion of the late 1950s was a regional rebellion as much as a manifestation of deep-seated conflicts among the officers. Our democracy, and the reform of the TNI in particular, is much too young too superficial compared to this "tradition". So responses to possible dissatisfaction and revolt should be more than just the repeated rhetoric of moral imperative and normative calls. A lesson learned may be: face the facts, deal with them, and open a public dialogue. Let us, for example, suppose that the rebellious ABS group does exist. The most likely figures to be associated with ABS would be Gen. (ret.) Wiranto who leads the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto with his Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Given Wiranto's reported lack of funding, but better party organization, his Hanura Party is interesting to Prabowo, who seems to be less popular within the military, but whose Gerindra Party seems equipped with a wealthy campaign machine -- just as the Gerindra Party is attractive to Wiranto. Wiranto may be a careful strategist with less articulate rhetoric, just as Prabowo has the image of being a bold soldier whose style and populist rhetoric may be inspiring. Permadi, a former Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politician who now joins the Gerindra Party, has argued Prabowo is a "little Sukarno", but he forgets populism is not the same as patriotism. The two may be intimately linked, but populism may strongly appeal to people's general and simple instincts, primordial or otherwise, whereas patriotism does not necessarily. Indeed, Hitler's fascism is a good example of manipulation of patriotic values so as to attractively combine it, at time of crises, with populist rhetoric and militarism. In any case, an alliance of Wiranto's well-organized party machine and Prabowo's alleged charisma, populism and patriotism would likely be a formidable challenge to other presidential hopefuls first and foremost: SBY. Hence, their code: "ABS", "Anyone But Susilo." Whether SBY's reelection, a (hypothetical?) Wiranto-Prabowo alliance, or other presidential hopefuls for that matter, would be good for Indonesia, is another matter altogether. But to incite a rebellion in disguise within or without the military, to warn them without firm steps, and to deal with them secretly, in an elitist way, without a public debate, is not to serve our democracy. Generals old soldiers it is said, never die, they just fade way. In a young democracy, though, they should "die" militarily, abandon their military habit and tradition, and "fade into" a healthy civilian political game. The writer is a journalist. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
