Table Of ContentA COUNTRY IN DESPAIR
VERHANDELINGEN
VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT
VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE
186
KEES VAN DIJK
A COUNTRY IN DESPAIR
Indonesia between 1997 and 2000
Second printing
2002
KITLV Press
Leiden
Published by:
KITLV Press
Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
(Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology)
P.O.Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
First printing 2001
Cover photo: D&R
Cover: Marque's grafische ontwerpen, Leiden
ISBN 90 6718 160 9
© 2002 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner.
Printed in the Netherlands
Contents
Preface vii
I Towards the election of May 1997 1
II Violent campaigns 27
III Towards an economic and political crisis, 1997 51
IV The economic crisis 71
V Towards an economic and political crisis, January-March 1998 111
VI The general session of the People's Congress 137
VII Mounting tension 161
VIII Soeharto's resignation 185
IX Skeletons in the cupboard 217
X Investigating recent sins 235
XI KKN 255
XII Soeharto's wealth 273
XIII Searching for a new political system 289
XIV Political strife 323
XV Mysterious killings 359
XVI Communal violence 379
XVII Struggling along 399
XVIII Between hope and despair 431
XIX The first months of the Abdurrahman Wahid administration 469
XX Abdurrahman Wahid loses support 493
/
Epilogue
Contents
VI
Appendices
A Main parties and organizations 535
B Indonesian cabinets between 1993 and 2000 539
C Military officers holding key positions in the cabinet since
the 1980s 552
D Some key military fimctions since the 1980 553
E Governors, military commanders and chiefs of police
of Jakarta, 1996-2000 560
F List of suspects in the violence in East Timor in 1999 named
by the office of the attorney-general 561
G Glossary 563
H Abbreviations and acronyms 566
Bibliography 581
General index 591
Index of Indonesian geographical names 607
Index of personal names 611
Preface
It must have been in June or July of 1998 that I ran into Harry Poeze, director
of KITLV Press, in the corridor and we discussed the idea of writing this
book. The original intention was to concentrate on the events leading up to
Soeharto's fall. What happened after May 1998, though, proved to be at least
as interesting. Consequently this book describes political developments in
Indonesia up to the middle of December 2000. Political realities brought to
the fore the area of tension between the high hopes cherished in 1998 to trans¬
form Indonesia into a genuine democracy and the problems encountered in
effectuating political and economic reforms. Within days after Soeharto's fall
it also became clear that opinions differed greatly about the nature of the
changes needed and that some political leaders did not hesitate to mobilize
their supporters to accomplish their aims. Students, whose demonstrations
had been instrumental in bringing about the downfall of Soeharto, continued
to be a force to reckon with. Many of them had completely different ideas
about what the 'reform era' should look like than the political inner circle,
how divided the latter may have been amongst themselves. The ideal of
establishing a political system different from that of Soeharto's New Order
not only gave rise to a plethora of revelations about crimes committed by the
Armed Forces during the New Order, implicating almost all senior army offi¬
cers. The removal of tight military control also allowed for local popular
movements against local authorities and local firms and estates accused of
power abuses in the past, and unfortunately also for rampant violence.
Separatist movements gained in strength, and radical Islamic opinions which
had been silenced during the New Order could be vented freely.
The career of a number of Indonesian key politicians came to an end when
Soeharto was forced to resign. Many still play a role in present-day politics.
The same can be said of the leading officers of the Armed Forces. The Armed
Forces, especially the army, had to relinquish much of their hold over poli¬
tics. Nevertheless, retired and active army generals remain important players
in Indonesian politics. In the economic sphere it also proved difficult to erad¬
icate the influence of those who became immensely rich during the New
Order. The political changes of 1998 meant that much information was dis-
viii Preface
closed about economic mismanagement and corruption and collusion com¬
mitted by leading businessmen, in particular by Soeharto's children and
some of the closest friends of the Soeharto family. The Asian economic crisis
had brought many businessmen to the brink of economic ruin. Even before
May 1998 measures had to be taken to save the banking sector from collapse
and to solve the problem of enormous debts businessmen had accumulated
in Indonesia and abroad. After May 1998 the restructuring of the economy
was stepped up. The economic reforms gave rise to the same criticism as the
steps which had been taken to accomplish political reforms. New corruption
scandals erupted, and the suspicion was vented that rich businessmen still
had too much influence to tackle the problems effectively, or were saved from
prosecution because without their contribution and managerial skills the
Indonesian economy would be in even worse shape.
Prefaces of books about Indonesia are not complete without a note on orthog¬
raphy. In the rare case that persons and organizations are mentioned from
before 1972, they are referred to in the spelling of the period these organiza¬
tions or persons were active in. Words and names derived from Arabic or
Sanskrit are rendered in the way they are spelled in Indonesia. By far the
greatest problems are presented by personal names. When the preference of
the person in question is known, his or her name is spelled in this way. In
other cases the spelling is chosen which seems to be most widespread.
Prefaces of books are also not complete without a word of thanks. So
many people helped me that it is impossible to thank them all. Three excep¬
tions have to be made: the staff of KITLV Press; the KITLV representative in
Jakarta, Jaap Erkelens, who was the 'source' of much of my literature, and
Rosemary Robson, who corrected my English and saw to it that I could pres¬
ent a presentable manuscript to KITLV Press.
