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Wiranto's Resurrection

By Marianne Kearney

As his bus inches through a densely packed crowd of supporters decked out in yellow T-shirts, yellow bandanas and flags decorating their motorbikes, presidential hopeful and indicted war-crimes suspect Wiranto waves and smiles.

"Look, they are all motorcycle taxi drivers," he says. "All the motorcycle-taxi drivers like me." Dozens of young men wave at him. "You can see these people are not paid," Wiranto says confidently. In fact, many of the 2,000 people who have come to hear the former armed forces commander say they have been paid - at least 5,000 rupiah (about $4.50), and given a free T-shirt and lunch. But it is not just money and music that bring these people to hear Wiranto's campaign rally. Many of them come from a rough neighbourhood in north Jakarta and are fans of the former general.

"I am very happy to see Wiranto," says Sulomo. a 53-year-old motorcycle-taxi driver. "I want Wiranto to become president because he is ex-military." Sulomo proudly wears his free yellow T-shirt, bearing the symbol for Golkar, the party of former ruler Suharto, and says that, regardless of the financial incentives, he would still come to hear him.

Few seem to care that the former general was indicted by the UN's Special Crimes Unit for his role in the post-ballot violence in East Timor, where at least 1,000 people were killed. Nor do many seem to mind that there are still suspicions about his role during the May 1998 riots, when the military was confined to barracks and hundreds of people were killed by rioters.

On stage, campaigning in a yellow bomber jacket for the Golkar party, Wiranto launches into a tirade against what he says is the chaos and uncertainty of Indonesia's past five years of democracy. "Lots of people are crying, lots of people can't afford to eat. But if Golkar wins, the people are happy and this country will certainly be peaceful," he says to rousing cheers.

In the week before Indonesia went to the polls, Wiranto toured the country, campaigning hard on a ticket of returning strong-arm rule to the archipelago. "Provocateurs are still running around, police are still losing out to thugs, it's not peaceful," he shouts to a crowd in Gunung Kidul, central Java. "Those who prosper are just corruptors and mad people run around," he yells to further cheers. The general's claims that he can end the era of weak government and street crime, goes down well with this crowd.

Many people such as Supoyo, a 35-year-old farmer, voted for President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle in the 1999 elections. But after five years of rising food, gas and oil prices and difficulties paying his children's school fees, he says he wants a return to the security of the past. "As a presidential candidate, Wiranto is good, because he's a former army member. Maybe he can lead the government with a sense of duty and discipline."

Flying in a chartered plane to campaign in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Wiranto says his plans to return legal certainty and strong government to Indonesia will bring back the foreign investors and improve the country's economy.

"[Business people] want a guarantee for Indonesia's future - an Indonesia that is peaceful, stable and regulated, so they will be able to build up business," he says.

"They believe in my reputation, my track record, that I am able to build a situation that is orderly, peaceful and regulated."

The former general, who was indicted by the UN's Special Crimes Unit last year for crimes against humanity, sees no contradiction in campaigning on a platform of returning legal certainty to Indonesia.

A recent legal summary of evidence against Wiranto, issued by prosecutors for the Special Crimes Unit, says the general knew that militias had been trained, equipped and partially funded by the military and that his special security representative in East Timor, Major-General Zacky Makarim, controlled them.

Wiranto denies this. In his book, Witness in the Storm - the Truth as Revealed by Wiranto, he says that his and the military's (TNI) role in the destruction of East Timor was greatly exaggerated. "Misinformation campaigns via the mass media succeeded in creating the perception that what happened in East Timor was a brutal and evil conspiracy by TNI and pro-integration militias against
the pro-independence group in the form of killing, torture, expulsion, arson and so forth," he says.

Analysts such as Kevin O'Rourke, in his book Reformasi say Wiranto formed strong links with the Islamic Defenders Group, a thuggish organisation that attacked students during the anti-parliament protests in 1998; attacked the Indonesian Human Rights Commission when it was investigating the East Timor mayhem; and appeared to stoke sectarian violence in Jakarta in 1998 and Maluku in
1999.

But it is precisely because he was in charge during the difficult days of Suharto's ousting, student riots, East Timor violence and the explosion of sectarian violence in Maluku, that he alone has the experience to lead Indonesia through its current crisis, Wiranto says. He says he was the midwife to Indonesia's democracy, refusing to turn guns on student protestors - a crucial decision
in forcing Suharto to resign.

Critics say that the then commander of the armed forces could see Suharto was a spent force, and that he may even have been one of the generals masterminding the May riots that led to the president's downfall.

Wiranto enjoys playing the refined Javanese warrior to the hilt, creating the impression that he is not seeking out power but only offering himself up as part of his patriotic duty.

But today, his greatest battle may not be the ghosts of the 1998 riots or East Timor, but two other contenders for the presidential seat: another former general, the former security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the wily Golkar chair, Akbar Tandjung.

As the engineer of Golkar's rise from a disgraced Suharto-linked party to this year's apparent election winner, Mr Akbar is a powerful figure in its machine. Businessman Suryo Paloh, and another general, Prabowo Subianto are also competing for the nomination as Golkar's choice in the July 5 presidential election, when it holds a US-style party convention on April 20.

While Mr Akbar has been aggressively promoting himself during the three weeks of campaigning, Wiranto has campaigned for the party just as much as for himself. His advisers are confident his tactics will win him more support where it
counts, among Golkar's district heads.

Although Mr Akbar is powerful among the upper echelon of the Golkar party, grassroots cadres hold the majority of voting seats at the convention.

Just like John Kerry winning at the US Democrats convention, Wiranto will win the Golkar equivalent, says one of his advisers, Nasir Tamara. "Who is Kerry? He is a seasoned politician, he has a network, and this is also the case with Wiranto," Mr Nasir says. "He has been out of power for five years, but now you can see that although he has no public functions, he is not a businessman. He has very strong support from everybody, meaning that people see he is a natural leader."

Given that many of the thousands of people who have turned out to his ralliesover the past few weeks have been paid, it is hard to measure Wiranto's real popularity.

Analysts say the former general has built up strong networks among Golkargroups and businessmen, but whether he is as popular as he says is another
question. One factor in his favour is that Mr Akbar is widely viewed as corrupt,despite having been cleared of graft charges by the Supreme Court this year.

"Wiranto has the most potential, although it is not necessarily clear hewould beat Megawati," says Umar Juoro, of the Habibie Centre think-tank. "But Golkar likes him because he is popular, relative to the other candidates."

But Golkar now has another former general to choose from, in the shape of MrSusilo. He emerged as the dark horse in the parliamentary elections and his DemocratParty has garnered an unprecedented number of votes for an organisation formed
just three months ago. Having resigned from the cabinet only last month, heappears to be even more popular than Wiranto.

A recent poll by the International Federation for Electoral Systems showed he was by far the most popular presidential candidate, easily beating Ms Megawati.

Already, senior Golkar leaders have said they would like to form a coalition with Mr Susilo. Given his popularity, it would be hard to see how they would offer him less than the presidential seat. In which case, Golkar may not need another ex-general.