WHY IS INDONESIA CURSED?

NEW ORDER RETURNS FROM THE CRYPT

From this time and distance, it’s difficult to know how President Soeharto’s greed and authoritarianism seeped through the decades and into modern Indonesia, poisoning all it touched for the 32 years after he seized power in 1966.

These were tortuous times: the overthrow of the government and its charismatic founder, Soekarno, and the slaughter of more than 500,000 alleged Communists. The chaos occupied all.

It took time to bring about stability, but once achieved, the biggest nation in Southeast Asia slipped into despotism.

Like father-in-law, like son-in-law.

That’s happening now as the disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto starts to throttle the nation, turning a reforming democracy into an autocracy.

The manual was written by Prabowo’s one-time father-in-law, and it starts by turning off the power of the people and switching to the military.

Both men were in the armed forces, where they learned that might is right and, as Chairman Mao Zedong reportedly said 99 years ago – all power flows through the barrel of a gun.

By the time Soeharto and his New Order administration had collapsed under the weight of the Asian Monetary Crisis, US journalists had revealed him as the “20th Century’s Biggest Thief”.

“20th Century’s Biggest Thief”.

He stole an estimated US$ 32 billion from the public purse, and since his death in 2008 various administrations have tried to claw back some of his loot, though with limited success, as much vanished into businesses run by the family.

That included Prabowo till he was divorced by Soeharto’s daughter Titiek in 1998, the year he was cashiered for disobedience and human rights violations. Now he’s back from exile in Jordan, and in the Palace as Prez, he’s endorsed large-scale criminality by making Soeharto a National Hero.

Neither the man nor his former wife have remarried.

Their only son, Didit Hediprasetyo, 42, didn’t follow Dad and Grandad’s love for guns and force, but became a fashion designer in Europe where he now lives. There is speculation that he’s gay, a charge widely dismissed.

The issue of personal lives shouldn’t contaminate serious journalism except that his old man is legislating to ban LGBT, and whose personal behaviour is being publicly scrutinised.

This year, Amien Rais, a former chairman of the People’s Consultative Assembly, uploaded an eight-minute video titled Keep the Palace away from moral scandal.

He criticised the apparent close relationship between Prabowo, 74 and divorced Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya. The Lieutenant Colonel turned 37 this year on an official trip to Paris and was given a lavish surprise party by his boss.

Prabowo’s backers responded that the video (which was taken down within a day) was “an attempt to demean the dignity of the country’s leaders, had no basis in fact, and was divisive for the nation.”

The government’s communication agency Komdigi threatened to report Amien Rais for slander and baseless accusations.

The problem for the deniers is that the US-educated Dr Amien has credibility and respect as a former principal figure in the Muhammadiyah religious organisation, the second largest in the nation with up to 50 million members.

In 1998 when youth protests against Soeharto were flaring, Amien was in the front ranks.

Kompas newspaper reported that “along with students, intellectuals, cultural figures and other civil society leaders he contributed significantly to the collapse of the New Order regime.”

1998 photo: Dr Amien is in a long-sleeve white shirt with tie, raising his right hand. Note – no cellphones.

This month the president designated the spread of LGBTQ culture as a non-military threat under Indonesia’s National Defence Policy.

The Indonesia Business Post defined non-military threats in the law as “organised, non-armed activities that could endanger national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security. It classifies the spread of LGBTQ culture as a socio-cultural threat that could contribute to the erosion of nationalism.

“The category is grouped alongside terrorism, separatism, online gambling, the spread of prohibited ideologies, human trafficking, piracy, large-scale theft of natural resources and narcotics trafficking.

“The regulation also states that LGBTQ-related issues will be addressed using approaches applied to extraordinary crimes.” What this means has yet to be articulated, but it sounds grim.

What this means has yet to be articulated, but it sounds grim

LGBTQ rights and transgender activist Echa Waode, secretary-general of Arus Pelangi (the flow of the rainbow), said applying the regulation could intensify stigma and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities.

“It shifts public anger that should be directed vertically, toward the state, into horizontal conflict. It could increase bullying and persecution.”

The controversy has conveniently distracted public attention away from the government raising the price of non-subsidised fuel, the rupiah collapse and the Jakarta Composite Index plummeting.

Other issues include the film Pesta Babi (Pig Party), the death of three trainees going through military training for jobs in government retail convenience stores.

Funds for the free nutritious school lunch programme Makan Bergizi Gratis aimed at curbing child stunting and improving public health have been cut by 20 per cent after reports of massive corruption by senior staff, now under arrest.

All tiresome stuff; hounding LGBTQs is easier to understand, probably right - unless there are some in your family. Some guesstimates are ten per cent; in Indonesia that could be more than 28 million - a lot of people to persecute, Mister President.

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