Gatot looks for subversives
Something to replace the menace of communism in Indonesia?
Since 2014 a new ideology has been rising in Indonesia. “Fear of foreign proxies” emphasizes that Indonesia is threatened by proxy wars.
According to Indonesian Army chief of
staff General Gatot Nurmantyo, the “proxies” to be feared by Indonesians include what appear to be shadowy
organizations that defy identification but nonetheless constitute an
unspecified but growing threat –small countries, NGOs, civil society organisations,
mass media or individuals, acting as stand-ins for more powerful hidden
entities to attack Indonesia’s interests.
These threats, Gatot implied, could include Indonesian organizations and
individuals. In fact, his list seemed to include most organizations that
might threaten the power of the oligarchy in Indonesia. But in fact
the real targets may be domestic NGOs, civil society organizations, mass media
or individuals that will find it more difficult to criticize corruption,
environmental pillaging and trampling of marginal ethnic groups for fear of
being labeled by the re-emerging oligarchy as proxies for foreign interests.
Could this new ideology be manipulated by Indonesia’s elites to
consolidate their growing power and block dissent? Could the threat of foreign
proxies replace the Suharto-era threat of communism, allowing Indonesia’s
oligarchs to brand dissenters as “proxies?”
In April 2014, Gen. Gatot told university students in Bandung that “proxy wars”
present a growing threat to Indonesia and that Indonesian youth have a role to
play in defending against them. Since the election of President Joko Widodo,
this ideology has been gaining momentum. In September 2014, Gatot warned students in Jogyakarta about the threats.
In early October 2014, Hanura parliamentarian Dr. Susaningtyas Kertopati joined him.
In mid- October 2014, Gatot was spreading the ideology to eastern
Indonesia. He told university students in Ambon that the spread of narcotics
into Indonesia was part of an international conspiracy to destroy the country.
Then he continued on to Merauke and told Papuans that oil interests had used a
proxy war in 1999 to separate Timor-Leste from Indonesia. At the end of
October, he was telling university students in Bali that foreign interests
might seek to restrict development and education. Similarly in
October 2014, other military officials ran a seminar in Lampung titled “the role of youth in facing proxy wars.”
This emerging ideology appears to have escaped the attention of the
English language media until March 2015 so most links in this article are to
Bahasa Indonesia news sites.
By November 2014, warnings about “proxy wars” were spreading fast. The
military was warning high school kids about the threat. University students in Depok, south Jakarta,
were warned against foreign interests who recruit Indonesia’s younger
generation with indoctrination, education facilities and materials, so that
they would become agents of foreign countries (Merekrut
generasi muda Indonesia dengan indoktrinasi disertai fasilitas pendidikan dan
materi, agar mau jadi agen negara asing).
In 2015, the military campaign against “proxies” has continued right
across Indonesia. A major ideological campaign is underway. An Indonesian
English language newspaper finally reported this growing ideology following visits by Nurmanto to Semarang and Medan in March and April 2015 respectively.
Why is this campaign being run now? Proxy wars are not new. Many
conflicts before and during the Cold War were proxy wars, including those in
Indonesia in 1965 and 1975. One thing that is new is that the national
Parliament and police force have become the most corrupt institutes in Indonesia
and have, since mid-2014, been consolidating their power.
Parliamentarians’ attempts to undermine others who might challenge them
began with an unsuccessful attempt in mid-2014 to have provincial governors
appointed not by direct election but by corrupt local parliaments. In early
2015, parliamentarians and senior police apparently were successful in
crippling the nation’s Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK] 2015 by a string
of arrests of officials when they challenged the appointment of a plainly
corrupt national police chief. There is a growing risk that the military’s
proxy war ideology may be harnessed to cripple other Indonesian organizations
that might challenge them.
Indonesians, like all other nationalities, do indeed need to be wary of
being caught up in proxy wars. Xenophobia is not healthy but wariness and
ability to critically analyse foreign interests is certainly healthy. But
Indonesians also need wariness and ability to critically analyse the selfish
interests of their own elites.
With the KPK’s neutralization, NGOs and civil society organizations are
two remaining voices to hold the oligarchs accountable. What may have started
as a well-intentioned campaign by the military may well be soon manipulated by
elites to less nationalistic purposes.
Voices of dissent are now vulnerable to being branded as proxies if they
speak out in favor of improved government accountability, stricter controls
over environmental exploitation, respect for marginalised ethnic groups,
workers’ rights and improved government services for the nation’s millions of
poor people. If this happens, Indonesia will slip further into the noose of a
Parliamentarian-Senior Police oligarchy whose recent treatment of Indonesia’s
Corruption Eradication Commission suggests their first priority is their own
bank accounts. Asia Sentinel
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