With President Habibie’s diminishing popularity both internationally and domestically, rumors suggesting a possible coup attempt were rife — and another major concern to the loyalists was the country had no Vice President and, according to the Constitution, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Internal Affairs would assume joint, temporary leadership in the event the President were to fall.
When the ‘Merah Putih’ loyalists learned that the ‘Hijau’ reformists were mounting a major operation in the country’s eastern provinces, Suharman had become alarmed upon discovering that he had been deliberately left out of the intelligence loop. It would seem that the ‘Group of Twenty’ were making their move – and Suharman was determined to disrupt their plans.
Cijantung – East Jakarta
KOPASSUS Special Forces HQ
Following his BAKIN briefing Major Tony Supadi went directly to the outer Jakarta suburb of Cijantung, driving past the heavy machine-gun post and entering the marble-fronted Kopassus HQ. There he informed other members of the Special Forces of his meeting with General Suharman; the consensus amongst these officers loyal to the ‘Hijau’ reform movement was that swift action was imperative to unseat the Suharto loyalists – even if this conspiracy resulted in thousands of their fellow countrymen losing their lives. Special Ops teams were covertly created and charged with destabilizing sensitive areas; their aim to prepare the Indonesian people for a revitalized TNI’s return to power when the country’s experiment with democracy, as predicted, had failed. Plans for secret paramilitary forces were only months away from realization, the first training camp already under construction in the mountainous terrain two hours south of Jakarta. This paramilitary arm would be designated the Laskar Jihad or Islamic Holy Warriors, its rank and file to be drawn from Islamic student groups, and armed by the Indonesian Special Forces.
Major Supadi was a highly skilled officer, trained in intelligence gathering, sabotage and special operations’ techniques. He had already achieved the rank of captain when Prabowo Subianto, the President’s son-in-law assumed leadership of Kopassus in December 1995. When the command was reorganized in the following year Supadi was promoted to major and Prabowo became the country’s youngest, two-star general, overseeing the elite corps of red berets’ growth to 6,000. And, they had powerful friends for within two years, three of the most senior positions at TNI headquarters would be dominated, for the first time in Indonesia’s military’s history, by Kopassus Special Forces officers.
An opportunist, Supadi had never hesitated in volunteering for missions that would raise his profile within the corps. Beginning in late 1998 with rumors that President Habibie was considering a referendum in East Timor, Supadi led Kopassus elements in the systematic liquidation of Timorese associated with the struggling resistance movement, this action forcing thousands to flee into the jungles. The Major’s involvement in East Timor would continue, in parallel with his additional responsibilities in the Moluccas, both theatres in Indonesia’s Christian-dominated eastern provinces.
As a pragmatist, when the lines had been drawn between the loyalist and reformist officers, Supadi had considered the long-term ramifications of identifying with either group. Believing that both factions were fundamentally flawed and in no way influenced by the conflicting ideologies, Supadi had made his choice based solely on career considerations, secretly committing to the ‘Hijau’ movement.
Confident that the old guard would soon be swept from the TNI halls of power, the Major was determined to make his mark, assisting the ‘Group of Twenty’ in creating conflict to destabilize the nation and thus inspire people to seek new leadership — their leadership. He would turn General Suharman’s Lailat al-Qadr mission into the perfect opportunity to demonstrate his skills to his superiors. Riduan Isamuddin would not be harmed. The Maluku region would become the vanguard for the reformists’ military cabal’s endeavors to destabilize the country by provoking religious violence in the eastern provinces – its success assured with al-Qaeda’s S.E. Asian operations commander, Hambali, already on the ground, preparing for the Special Forces arrival.
Jakarta
The Bimaton Group
‘I have Pak Suwanto on line,’ Agus Sumarsono’s secretary called.
Agus scowled at the phone, the knot in his stomach tightening as he lifted the receiver. ‘Pagi, Mas.’
‘Good morning, Agus,’ the banker reciprocated.
Agus’s jaw tightened. They were not on a first name basis, Suwanto signaling the role reversal from a time when the haughty, Bimaton president was accorded the respect his position in the community demanded.
‘I have good news; at least, it’s good news for Bimaton. The creditors have agreed to reschedule the meeting until next month,’ Suwanto advised, not un-patronizingly. ‘I trust that you will be able to present your restructuring options at that time?’
Agus seethed, detecting the supercilious tone in the other’s voice. ‘I’ll be ready , ’ he countered. Agus was cognizant of the banker’s envy, the man’s poignant criticism of debtors maintaining luxury cars and boats whilst reluctant to repay loans still fresh in his mind.
‘Well, the creditors will be pleased to learn that you will resolve the debt issues, finally.’
The sarcasm was not lost on Agus. ‘Bimaton will pay its debts,’ was all he could muster before terminating the call.
His mind polluted with a myriad of issues Agus cleared his thoughts to address the problem of the next creditors’ meeting. Although he had secured limited backing from a number of government bank officials by pledging payments for their support, once the restructure had been approved, the Bimaton president was conscious of a growing dispathy within monetary circles towards his group. Agus understood the urgency of his determining a more efficacious method to dissuade the financial scavengers from forcing an asset fire sale, as he sincerely believed that the conglomerate’s cash-flow predicament could be resolved, given the benefit of time.
When the Asian currency crisis had struck, it gave the corrupt, over-inflated Indonesian economy the enema it so infinitely deserved. Preoccupied with amassing wealth, Asia’s elite had failed to recognize the economic and financial indicators that portended the currency collapse. CEO and heir apparent to the distressed Indonesian conglomerate, the Bimaton Group, Agus Sumarsono had seen his family’s wealth wither in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Bimaton conglomerate’s book value having collapsed to less than twenty cents in the dollar.
The Bimaton Group, as with so many of its contemporaries, had been founded in the early Seventies under the protective umbrella of Suharto’s New Order. Commencing with a simple coastal trading operation, the fledging company had grown to prominence during Suharto’s thirty years in power. Then the Asian currency crisis of 1997 precipitated the collapse of the country’s economy, an outcome that even the International Monetary Fund’s twenty-three-billion dollar multilat-eral financial package injection could not prevent.
In the twilight years of the Suharto dictatorship, corrupt bank officers approved loans amounting to tens of billions of dollars that fueled massive growth in all sectors of the economy. Now the debt-ridden companies were unable, or refused to repay these loans. In a country with no functioning bankruptcy system, the conglomerates simply stopped servicing their creditors. Terrified bank customers withdrew their deposits, placing most banks on the verge of collapse, further roiling the market. The government bailed them out with aid donor funds and tax-payers’ dollars and the banks surrendered their bad loans to the government which, in turn, brought about the creation of the bank restructuring agency, IBRA, ostensibly to force the debtors to meet their obligations.
However, in an environment where corruption was so endemic, the situation could only deteriorate – and it did. Company accounts had already been gutted by directors, the funds mysteriously disappearing into overseas numbered accounts in destinations such as Singapore, and property investments across the globe.
Indonesia