2) Yonif 509 Balawara Yudha military members accused of torture and extra-judicial killings in Intan Jaya
It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat.
Proof absolute was presented on Friday, five days after his inauguration, when new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto issued orders. His 48-member ministry together with 59 vice ministers, and five heads of state agencies had to present themselves in US-style camouflage uniforms at the army’s training camp at Magelang in Central Java.
Three days of exercises, parades and marches followed as the ministers moved like confused conscripts to martial music, camped in 120 tents and shuffled into lines.
They obeyed orders screamed by swaggering officers who in a real democracy are supposed to be subservient to the voters and their elected representatives. They were flown to the site packed in the sides of a Hercules that landed at Adi Sucipto Air Force Base in Yogyakarta.
In the 1970s as a young recruit, Prabowo trained at the camp south-east of Jakarta. In a speech to the rigid ranks, he said: “I prioritise working together as a team. We will have coordination in Magelang. I think it will bring many benefits.”
Indonesia brags of its 300 ethnic and religious groups speaking 200 distinct languages and dialects spread across more than 17,000 islands but all have been dissolved into sameness with the Magelang circus.
In my-way-or-the-highway threats Prabowo has shown that although he was cashiered in 1998 for disobeying orders and his troops disappearing dissident students before fleeing to exile in Jordan, he’s now back in total charge and with the biggest bureaucracy in the Republic’s history.
Two of his predecessors – second president Soeharto (Prabowo’s previous father-in-law) and sixth president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – were former generals but never showed such a blatant way to stamp authority and crush civilian rule.
If there was any disquiet expressed by the ministers snapping selfies of their adventures – particularly those like civilian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming who normally abhor strutters and foot-stampers – it was well hidden.
Instead, TV news footage showed the supposedly elected individuals behaving more like giggling pre-teens allowed a few days away from Mummy.
Before the ‘red and white (the colours of the Indonesian flag) retreat’ Indonesian law expert Professor Tim Lindsey of Melbourne Uni wrote: “It is clear enough that Prabowo has no enthusiasm for democracy. He has said, for example, that it is ‘very, very tiring’ and ‘very, very messy and costly’.
“Many activists now speak openly of their fear of being targeted and intimidated by government trolls or even the intelligence agencies.”
Opposition in Parliament is negligible as Prabowo has about 80 per cent of members in his coalition.
By the weekend the regiment of polis had received drill training that had nothing to do with running departments in finance, education, health, religion and all other matters of state.
More appropriately, they got “sessions on anti-corruption, development planning, budget structuring, and bureaucratic planning.” It is not known whether these courses were delivered by soldiers trained in ethics and professional administration apart from their everyday skills in stripping down AK-47s,
Despite their uniforms, fatigues, gaiters and big combat boots – everything apart from rifles – many were too old, better used to fighting head colds and unfit to have ever been sought for military service. That included the plump president who has just turned 73.
“I am not here to make you militaristic; that’s a misconception. Many governments and corporations have adopted the military way,” he reportedly said without naming states and corporations that eschew consultation and consensus.
Russia, North Korea and Hungary come to mind.
Journalists were not allowed to ask questions. “The core values are discipline and loyalty—not to me, but to the Indonesian nation and people,” Prabowo added. Why such pledges needed the respondents to be in battledress was not explained.
In a Trump-style comment clearly at odds with the observable facts from streaming TV, Prabowo’s PR man Hasan Nasbi reportedly explained “This activity in Magelang is to galvanise the ministers – this is not militarism. This is for togetherness.”
PM Anthony Albanese’s decision to stay in Australia with his King rather than attend Prabowo’s inauguration was correct. His presence in Jakarta would have been seen as endorsing authoritarianism to the point of fascism. Sending Defence Minister Marles was the right tactic.
Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.
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