[asia-apec 165] GJA on Jakarta's ET diplomacy (II)

[George J. Aditjondro]

Article in The Nation, Bangkok, Monday, October 14, 1996:
Comment/George J. Aditjondro

                Big carrots used in Indonesia's diplomatic policy on East Timor

        SO much for the sticks in Jakarta's East Timor diplomacy which I
wrote about last week. What about the carrots it has used to deal with its
international critics?

        As far as I have been able to discover from my library research,
Indonesian diplomats and other members of the Jakarta ruling elite have
repeatedly used financial and other material means to seduce their critics
and reward their supporters, in all the five continents -- in America,
Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

        Indonesia's former ambassador to the Netherlands, Ret. Gen
Alamsyah, once bragged in an Indonesian newspaper, how he seduced the
president of an unnamed state, to cease his support for the outlawed South
Moluccan Republic (RMS). When this RMS-supporter was visiting the
Netherlands, Alamsyah presented him with pieces of silver wrapped in fine
batik from Java, with the request to detain the RMS leader who was residing
in his country. According to Alamsyah, that bribe had done the trick, and
he suggested that Indonesia should also not hesitate to bribe the US
Senators, who had put pressure on Indonesia after the Nov 12, 1991 Dili
massacre.

        This report in the Indonesian daily,Pikiran Rakyat , of Dec 7,
1991, did not specify which head of state was bribed, for an insulting
cheap price, by the then Ambassador Alamsyah. However, from researching
South Moluccan politics one can know that only Beninhad at one stage
officially recognized three Indo-Melanesian independence movements -- the
South Moluccas, West Papua, and East Timor.

        In mid 1987, the then Indonesian defense minister Gen Benny Murdani
"contributed" US$ 139,000 to Ret. Gen Ted Diro, former PNG defense minister
and forestry minister in Paias Wingti's cabinet, to assist Diro's People's
Action Party's election campaign. The exposure of this bribe -- and many
others in the forestry sector -- ended Diro's political career.

        Earlier this year, the Australian media publicised the close
business partnership of Victorian Labour Left politician Gerry Hand, with
the Indonesian Christmas Island casino baron, Robby Sumampouw. This
Indonesian businessman has profitted tremendously from his more than long
association with Gen Benny Murdani and President Suharto's youngest son,
Tommy Suharto.

        Then, the third diplomatic carrot in the South Pacific region was a
shady business deal between a company owned by the Suharto family, PT
Harapan Insani, with a Vanuatu-registered company, Dragon Bank, owned by a
Malaysian Chinese. Harapan Insani itself is directed by Ibnu Widoyo, a
brother-in-law of President Suharto. With funds channelled through this
mysterious bank, Harapan Insani was supposed to build a 101-storey
telecommunication tower, an 'Eiffel Tower of the East' in Jakarta, worth
US$ 8 billion, plus a US$ 80 billion tourist resort on Langkawi Island in
Malaysia. The Vanuatu connection enjoyed the full blessing of Vanuatu's
Reserve Bank Governor and finance department secretary, Barak Sope, while
the Langkawi mega-project had the blessing of Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir as well.

        Both schemes collapsed when the Dragon Bank branch in Jakarta could
not honour its committments with the Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong)
and the Hongkong Bank branch in Jakarta. Eventually, after this scandal
broke out in the media, the Indonesian government cancelled the operating
permit of this mysterious bank, while Ibnu Widoyo had to face police
interrogations in Jakarta. This case, which smells of money laundering,
might not just stop in Jakarta, where Ibnu Widoyo's powerful brother-in-law
still rules the country.

        What have all those three South Pacific scandals in common? They
all involved local politicians, -- Ted Diro, Gerry Hand, and Barak Sope --
, who were once known to support the West Papuan and East Timorese
independence struggles.

        Another important businessperson-cum-diplomat who has worked hard
to counter the international East Timor solidarity movement is Siti
Hardiyanti Rukmana, also known as Tutut, the eldest daughter of President
Suharto. Apart from controlling a large business empire, Citra Lamtoro
Persada (CLP) Group, she is also a chairperson of Indonesia's ruling party,
Golkar, and heads a number of charities as well as an Indonesian-Portuguese
friendship association. She only befriends, however, Portuguese and East
Timorese who support Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. These friends
can thereby enjoy preferential business deals with Indonesia.

        Three East Timorese 'friends', who have enjoyed her patronage are
Abilio Araujo, who lives in Portugal, the late Jose Martins, who also lived
in Portugal, and Manuel Tilman, who lives in Macao. Interestingly, they
were all at some stage East Timorese freedom fighters, or had at least
attacked Indonesia's policy publicly.

        Recently, representatives of the East Timor diplomatic front have
met South African president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, presenting the
anti-apartheid veteran with a letter from the jailed East Timor leader,
Xanana Gusmao. They asked Mandela to use his charisma as a statesman of
global fame to support the East Timor independence struggle, in return for
the support with the two largest Lusophone countries in Africa, Mozambique
and Angola, had rendered to Mandela's African National Congress (ANC)
during his anti-apartheid struggle.

        Unfortunately, Mandela might not be the right person to ask that
favour, since an ANC-affiliated fund raising agency, the Foundation for
Peace and Justice, had suffered huge losses in a sanction-busting US$ 40
million bungled bank loan that also leads to the doorstep of President
Suharto. That loan, which had been invested in two lucrative business
projects in London and the Cape Peninsula, were provided by an Indonesian
bank, Bank Putera Sukapura.

DR GEORGE ADITJONDRO is an Indonesian academic, currently in exile in
Australia. At present he teaches at Newcastle University.

PS: The Clinton-Lippo case has been cut out by The Nation editor, due to
space limitations, and will be addressed in a separate article which I am
still working on, to be published, hopefully, later