March 2014 - Although Indonesia has made strides toward consolidating its democracy, some of its leading presidential and vice-presidential candidates continue to have deeply troubling backgrounds of gross human rights violations. This report provides a brief background on Indonesian democratization and examines some of the contenders for the nation’s highest political offices.

Indonesian voters. Photo byNatalia Warat/Asia Foundation

Indonesia is in the midst of an election campaign. On April 9 voters will elect members to the national and regional legislatures. Once that election is completed Indonesia will hold its third presidential election following its transition to democracy after 32 years of military dictatorship. Candidates for the July 9 presidential election will be determined in part by the election for the People's Representative Council (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR). A presidential ticket must be supported by a party or coalition of parties with at least 25 percent of the vote or 20 percent of the seats in the DPR election. While many parties have announced their favored candidates, only two – Golkar and PDI-P – out of 12 registered national parties are thought to have a chance at passing the threshold. The final determination of candidates will occur after the official DPR results, scheduled to be released on May 7, when coalitions of parties may form to put together tickets. The presidential and vice-presidential candidates have often come from different parties.

Current president and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is completing his second term and is barred by term limits from running again. For months potential candidates have been jockeying for support – from both the general population and from political parties. Below, we briefly examine some worrisome candidates, based on their human rights and military records.

Indonesian Democracy and Democratization

Democratization is a process. When Suharto was forced from office in May 1998, Indonesia did not democratize overnight. In fact, it took a year for the first nationally contested election, which eventually brought the Muslim intellectual Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, to the presidency.

Today, most Indonesian political parties are personality-based, with limited platforms. Parties with major media owners behind them are thought to have an advantage and in some areas politics is a family business. Corruption accusations and convictions have affected the popularity of several political parties, including SBY’s Democratic Party (Partai Demokrat, PD) and the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS).

Elections do not make a democracy - elections were regularly held during the Suharto period, albeit with little competition and highly predictable results.

And elections do not make a democracy - elections were regularly held during the Suharto period, albeit with little competition and highly predictable results. And while elections in Indonesia are now more open than before, they are merely the most superficial aspect of democracy.

Meaningful democracy includes more than electoral competition. Government should be responsive to people’s needs and not just the demands of elites. It should work to ensure equality of opportunity, minimum social guarantees for the population, freedom from entrenched corruption in the economic, political and legal spheres, the elimination of military influence in politics and the economy, an end to racism and religious persecution, and the respect of basic human rights for Indonesia’s marginalized populations. Yes, democratization is chugging along in Indonesia, but when one views the plight of indigenous West Papuans and the ongoing impunity of the security forces it is impossible to think of Indonesia as a mature, consolidated democracy.

Indonesia has come a long way since 1999. Timor-Leste is now independent, Indonesia’s press is much freer, a nervous peace hangs over Aceh, and some politicians, judges and business owners have been tried for corruption. Under President SBY, however, religious and ethnic tensions have risen, notably against Indonesia’s Shiite, Ahmadi, and Christian populations. Repression continues in West Papua. Local legislatures across Indonesia have passed discriminatory laws. Thugs and gangsters from groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front have provoked and intimidated minorities, and have literally gotten away with murder. Military reform has stalled and even modest efforts to address past violations of human rights have gone nowhere.

Indonesia has a long and firm history of military-trained national leaders. Since Sukarno, only three Indonesian presidents, who governed for a combined total of six years, have not been in the military. Although having an ex-military president does not necessarily mean hostility toward democracy, those who served during the dictator General Suharto's New Order period of 1965-1998 became acculturated to a system in which the military was granted tremendous political, economic and military power. Gus Dur’s attempts to check this power was one of the reasons that his presidency failed, and many in the military remain disgruntled with any moves to disengage them from politics and the economy.

Where Indonesia will be in another five years – the length of a presidential term – is difficult to predict. But for those interested in human rights and democracy, it is all too easy to envision a rollback of positive reforms under the wrong president. That some of the men described below are serious candidates for Indonesia’s highest office (and that many others with highly tainted records play powerful roles in most Indonesian political parties), speaks to the country’s failure to confront the violations of human rights on which they built their careers. This lack of justice and accountability will only reinforce the sense of impunity that pervades Indonesia and undermines its democracy.

Below are potential candidates for president with deeply troubling human rights records. Disturbingly, their violations are viewed positively by some, as signs of toughness. While their records have been questioned at times during their political campaigns, they deserve constant attention and deeper investigation as Indonesians go to the polls.

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Prabowo Subianto

Prabowo spent much of his military career in Indonesia’s notorious Kopassus special forces, becoming its commander from 1995-1998. He now leads the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Partai Gerakan Indonesia Raya, Gerindra Party), which is largely funded by his millionaire brother. Prabowo had close ties to Suharto during the New Order (he married and has a son with Suharto’s daughter Titiek). He received military training in the U.S. The Washington Post reported in 1998 that his "ties to the U.S. military are the closest of any among the U.S.-trained officer corps." Former U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Gelbard described Prabowo as “somebody who is perhaps the greatest violator of human rights in contemporary times among the Indonesian military. His deeds in the late 1990s before democracy took hold, were shocking, even by TNI standards.”

Prabowo served several tours in Timor-Leste, where he “developed his reputation as the military's most ruthless field commander” (Joseph Nevins, A Not-So Distant Horror, Mass Violence in East Timor, Cornell University Press, 2005: 61). Among other actions he was involved in the 1978 capture of Fretilin leader Nicolau Lobato, who was shot and killed while in custody. In the 1990s, he organized gangs of hooded killers known as “ninjas” and the Tim Alfa militia in Los Palos to terrorize and cow the population. Prabowo is also accused of being involved in the September 1983 Kraras massacre, where more than 300 people were killed by Indonesian soldiers, and several East Timorese have accused Prabowo of torturing them. Prabowo denies involvement. Release of Prabowo’s complete military records, including his and his troops locations on particular dates, would clarify his role.

In 1996, Prabowo led a team to secure the release of environmental researchers taken hostage by West Papuan guerrillas. He aborted a planned Red Cross supervised release of the hostages to prevent his sister-in-law from getting credit. According to Ed McWilliams, a former U.S. diplomat, “The aborted hostage transfer led to a brutal campaign of reprisal attacks by the Indonesian military (largely Kopassus) against highland villages.” This campaign began with an assault from “an Indonesian military helicopter disguised to look like the helicopter that ICRC mediators had been using” in violation of well-established international humanitarian law.

I am a retired lieutenant general who once attempted to overthrow a president. But I failed to do it, and I regret that I failed. - Prabowo

As the tumult associated with the East Asian economic crisis in 1997-98 threatened the political legitimacy of the Suharto regime, Prabowo spearheaded campaigns to kidnap, arrest, intimidate and torture student activists. Protesting students at Trisakti University were killed and wounded by military snipers. Prabowo has acknowledged his role in the kidnappings, but has said his “conscience is clear.” Convicted by a court of honor for “exceeding orders,” Prabowo was forced to retire.

He is also accused of having a central role in sparking the May 14, 1998 anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta and other major urban areas. At the time, Prabowo was head of the Kostrad (the Army Strategic Reserve) based in the capital. In 2003, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) accused Prabowo of responsibility “for gross human rights violations that occurred during the extensive rioting in Jakarta in 1998.” The Komnas HAM report said that “security authorities at that time failed to curb the widespread riots that took place simultaneously.” The spread of the riots was a result of a specific policy based on the “similar pattern at almost all places where the riots took place, which began with provocation, followed by an attack on civilians.”

Shortly before Suharto resigned, Prabowo, backed by armed men, confronted the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Subagio at his home. The next morning Prabowo was removed as Kostrad commander. Later that day, B.J. Habibie succeeded Suharto as president, and Prabowo demanded command of the military. On May 22, he deployed troops around the presidential palace. Prabowo reportedly, “took his demotion badly – at one point strapping on a sidearm, summoning several truckloads of troops and confronting guards at the presidential palace as he tried to win an audience” with Habibie. Soon after he was forced to resign from the military. In a speech in late 2012 he said, "I am a retired lieutenant general who once attempted to overthrow a president. But I failed to do it, and I regret that I failed." Recently, while campaigning in Aceh, Prabowo offered a vague apology for unnamed actions his troops took there.

Prabowo was the first person denied entry into the United States in 2000 under the UN Convention against Torture.

After leaving the military Prabowo went into business and has tried to remake himself as a populist, becoming president of the Indonesian Farmers’ Association (HKTI) in 2004, while often arguing that Indonesia needed a strong, guiding hand - his. The same year, he tried unsuccessfully to become the Golkar (Suharto’s New Order party) nominee for President. In 2009 he was Megawati Sukarnoputri’s vice-presidential candidate (a PDI-P/Gerindra split ticket).

Until recently, Prabowo led most opinion polls of declared candidates for President. Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi), who officially entered the race in mid-March as the PDI-P candidate, is the current favorite.

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