Word: indonesia
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...midnight at the top ten karaoke bar in Banda Aceh, and the portly drunkard everyone respectfully calls "Commander" is on the mike. "Indonesia," he wails between gulps of Guinness. "You are the red of my blood, the white of my bone." His bleary rendition wins huge applause from the bar's other customers, all Indonesian soldiers deployed in the capital of war-torn Aceh province. "I love that song," slurs the Commander, who is actually an army major. "It makes me feel so patriotic...
...many hoped would be a march toward reform has slowed to a shuffle. While the TNI's 38-member faction is scheduled to withdraw from the national parliament by 2004, its political influence is growing again, partly due to the inability of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government to fix Indonesia's many problems. Its vast business empire?the military owns or has interests in some 250 businesses, including Jakarta department stores, Bali resorts and massive land holdings nationwide, worth an estimated $3 billion?remains intact. And most importantly, say critics, the military has paid little more than lip service...
...Indonesia's military, specifically the army, has long been more than just the defender of the flag. It fought the Japanese during World War II and the Dutch during the battle for independence, and soon established a nation-building role for itself as the only institution capable of holding the fractious archipelago together. Over the years, various leaders have dealt with the army differently?but always using the TNI as a means of staying in power. Sukarno, Megawati's father, played it off against the communists and Muslims. Suharto exploited it to enrich his family and cronies. After he fell...
...since then the world has changed yet again, and Indonesia's military is now receiving mixed signals. Post-Sept. 11, Washington, while still demanding radical improvement in the TNI's human rights record (the U.S. cut military ties and banned hardware sales after Indonesia's violent withdrawal from East Timor in 1999), is clearly itching to patch up military relations with Indonesia, which it regards as a hotbed of Islamic extremism. As for Megawati, she won her presidency last year with military backing, and former TNI officers hold key posts in her Cabinet. Because she stresses the country's unity...
...evidence is increasingly perilous. The New York City-based Human Rights Watch claims humanitarian workers are now deliberately targeted by Aceh's military and police. Two FP HAM volunteers were found dead last year, one with his hands and legs tied, and his body perforated with stab marks. Whenever Indonesia's unity is perceived to be under threat, humanitarian concerns are automatically overridden by the military imperative to crush the enemy at all costs?and by any method. As a slogan daubed on a military bunker in Aceh puts it: We love peace?but we love unity more. "As long...