The Jakarta Globe, May 30, 2014
Jakarta. Mugiyanto recalls the horror of being abducted by soldiers, blindfolded, beaten and electrocuted as a student activist fighting to end the long rule of Indonesian dictator Suharto.
Sixteen years on, he can’t believe the man who ordered his capture could be the country’s next president.
Former general Prabowo Subianto is trying to erase human rights violations from his image as he pursues the presidency in the world’s third-largest democracy.
But the voices demanding he be brought to justice are growing louder as the July 9 poll approaches.
Twenty-three activists were kidnapped in the months before the three-decade rule of Suharto was brought to an end in May 1998, when the Asian financial crisis sparked violent protests as it tore through Indonesia.
As head of the army’s special forces (Kopassus) in early 1998, Prabowo admitted to ordering some of the abductions, including Mugiyanto’s. He was discharged from the military following Suharto’s downfall for “exceeding orders”.
But the former general denies ordering the torture.
The 62-year-old, who used to be married to Suharto’s daughter, has never faced a civilian court. He also denies accusations he was involved in the disappearance of 13 activists, whose fates remain unknown.
Mugiyanto hopes that by telling the story of his three-day interrogation he can educate those who know little about the ex-general’s past.
“The most painful part was when I heard my friends being tortured,” Mugiyanto told AFP, his voice quavering as he recalled sobbing uncontrollably when he heard their screams.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” the 41-year-old said.
‘Dirty games’
Most Indonesians are in the dark about Prabowo’s past. A poll by the Indonesian Survey Institute found that less than 30 percent of respondents knew about the abductions or that Prabowo was discharged from the military.
At a recent pro-Prabowo demonstration, supporters described the ex-general as “honest”, and one man said the allegations against him were all “lies”.
“His rivals are just playing dirty games. There is no problem. This is just a dirty conspiracy,” supporter Binsar Effendi Hutabarat said.
Prabowo still polls a distant second to his only rival — the popular Joko Widodo, who rose to fame in his stint as Jakarta governor — but he has narrowed the gap dramatically in recent months.
His Gerindra Party has a strong “pro-poor” platform that appeals to the masses — half of Indonesia’s 250 million people live below or hover around the poverty line of $2 a day.
And his militaristic past is seen as a plus by millions who yearn for a strong leader to follow outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, widely criticized for his indecision.
‘Hot-tempered’
While activists are demanding Prabowo’s past be discussed, rights have taken a back seat in the local media’s election coverage.
Prabowo has barked at local reporters venomously when asked about rights. His brother and senior advisor, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, says Prabowo has been “hot-tempered” since he was a boy, and that he was unlikely to change.
Prabowo has kept most foreign journalists at arm’s length ahead of the elections, refusing AFP’s repeated requests for an interview in recent months.
When asked about his rights record during a talk with foreign correspondents last year, Prabowo snapped: “Do you come to us and tell us that 250 million Indonesians are all stupid?”
“Let the Indonesian people decide. Let them scrutinize the past. Let them decide who will be their elected leaders,” he said.
There have been attempts to haul Prabowo before courts in the past, but they have all failed.
Last week a group of lawyers filed a suit calling for an ad hoc human rights court to be established to try Prabowo and others allegedly involved in the abductions, in line with a 2009 recommendation by parliament.
A push for Prabowo to be tried has also come from neighboring East Timor, where he is accused of atrocities, including the massacre of hundreds in 1983, during Indonesia’s occupation.
Prabowo denies those allegations as well.
A Prabowo victory could prove awkward for the United States, an ally of Indonesia. He was denied a visa to the country in 2000, reportedly because of his rights record, although US officials have indicated they will work with whomever is elected.
While the masses may not consider rights as they cast their votes, the families of those missing hope the election will bring greater attention to their cause.
Yan Siahaan, whose son was one of the 13 students who disappeared, has protested every May for the past 16 years in the “Against Forgetting” campaign.
“We want the public to know who Prabowo is,” he said at a demonstration among a sea of banners branding the ex-general a “kidnapper, murderer and rights violator”.
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A Checkered Past Continues to Dog Would-Be Leader
Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s past is proving to be his Achilles’ heel, with activists pointing to allegations of rights abuses and the unceremonious way in which he was bundled out of the armed forces in 1998.
“There are mounting calls from the public for the military to release the documents on Prabowo’s discharge,” Poltak Agustinus Sinaga, the head of the Association of Legal Aid and Human Rights Institutions, or PBHI, said in Jakarta on Thursday.
“The people need to know the true factors behind Prabowo’s dishonorable discharge. Was it because of the kidnapping [of anti-Suharto demonstrators]? Was it because he was planning a coup d’etat? Whatever it was, the public needs to know because it concerns a man who is running for president.”
Rights groups have long questioned Prabowo’s eligibility to run for president, noting that he was discharged from the Army in August 1998 for “misinterpreting orders” in the abduction of the democracy activists earlier that year.
While that was the military’s official statement, observers have long believed that it was a coup conspiracy that saw Prabowo, then the commander of the Army Strategic Reserves, given his marching orders.
Prabowo has admitted to the abductions, but claimed he was just following orders. He has repeatedly denied eyeing a coup, despite trying to storm the presidential office with truckloads of his troops a day after Suharto resigned.
Prabowo is now angling for the endorsement of the influential Democratic Party, with whose chairman, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he served in the Army.
Growing signs that Yudhoyono is leaning toward supporting Prabowo, however, have been met with criticism.
“As a soldier, SBY knows full well the importance of discipline and upholding the Constitution,” Arie Sudjito, a political expert from Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University.
“He also knows that Prabowo was discharged from the military, so why would he want to support him now?”
Yudhoyono, the military’s chief of staff for sociopolitical affairs during the tumultuous period in 1998, served on the military tribunal that discharged Prabowo.
“So it’s ironic that he should now want to endorse him, knowing his disciplinary problem,” Arie said.
He also argued that Yudhoyono would be doing his Democratic Party, laid low by a litany of corruption scandals, no favors by allying it with Prabowo’s coalition, which includes a host of parties whose top officials have been the subject of graft allegations.
Key among them is the United Development Party, or PPP, whose chairman, Suryadharma Ali, resigned on Wednesday as the minister for religious affairs after being named a suspect in the embezzlement of hajj management funds.
Another graft-hit party in Prabowo’s coalition is the Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS, whose president, Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, was in December last year sentenced to 16 years in prison in a bid-rigging case at the Agriculture Ministry.
If the Democrats join such a coalition, Arie warned, “their image will only worsen.”
“They should do the brave thing and steel themselves for five years in the opposition, which would be much more positive [than joining Prabowo’s coalition],” he said.
The Democrats, however, have shown increasing signs that they will endorse Prabowo, with several top officials joining his campaign team.
They include Ahmad Mubarok, a member of the party’s board of patrons, and Marzuki Alie, the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Syarif Hasan, the Democrats’ executive chairman, said on Wednesday that the party was not officially endorsing either Prabowo or Joko Widodo, the candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, and that the support from individual party officials should not be construed as the party line.
Arie said the likes of Marzuki and other high-profile officials flocking to Prabowo were mere opportunists.
He pointed out that Marzuki had failed to win re-election to the House in the April 9 legislative election, and that by allying himself with Prabowo he hoped to curry favor with the candidate.
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vr 30 mei 2014 - 8:56