Associates of Donald Trump in Indonesia have joined army officers and a vigilante street movement linked to ISIS in a campaign that ultimately aims to oust the country’s president. According to Indonesian military and intelligence officials and senior figures involved in what they call “the coup,” the move against President Joko Widodo (known more commonly as Jokowi), a popular elected civilian, is being impelled from behind the scenes by active and retired generals.
Prominent supporters of the coup movement include Fadli Zon, vice speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives and Donald Trump’s main political booster in the country; and Hary Tanoe, Trump’s primary Indonesian business partner, who is building two Trump resorts, one in Bali and one outside Jakarta.
This account of the movement to overthrow President Jokowi is based on dozens of interviews and is supplemented by internal army, police, and intelligence documents I obtained or viewed in Indonesia, as well as by NSA intercepts obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Many sources on both sides of the coup spoke on condition of anonymity. Two of them expressed apparently well-founded concerns about their safety.
On the surface, the massive street protests surrounding the April 19 gubernatorial election have arisen from opposition to Jakarta’s ethnic Chinese incumbent governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok. As a result of pressure from the well-funded, well-organized demonstrations that have drawn hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — to Jakarta’s streets, Gov. Ahok is currently standing trial for religious blasphemy because of an offhand comment about a verse in the Quran. On Thursday, the day after he hears the results of the very close governor’s election, he is due back in court for his blasphemy trial.
Yet in repeated, detailed conversations with me, key protest figures and officials who track them have dismissed the movement against Ahok and the charges against him as a mere pretext for a larger objective: sidelining the country’s president, Jokowi, and helping the army avoid consequences for its mass killings of civilians — such as the 1965 massacres that were endorsed by the U.S. government, which armed and backed the Indonesian military.
Serving as the main face and public voice of the generals’ political thrust has been a group of what Indonesians call preman — officially sponsored street thugs — in this case, the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI (Front Pembela Islam). Originally established by the security forces — the aparat — in 1998 as an Islamist front group to assault dissidents, the FPI has been implicated in violent extortion, especially of bars and sex clubs, as well as murders and attacks on mosques and churches. During the mass protests against the governor, FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab has openly called for Ahok to be “hanged” and “butchered.”
FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab openly called for Ahok to be “hanged” and “butchered.”
Joining Rizieq at the protests atop a mobile command platform have been the FPI’s spokesman and militia chief, Munarman, as well as Fadli Zon, who is known for publicly praising Donald Trump and appeared with the candidate at a press conference at Trump Tower during the opening days of the presidential campaign. Fadli Zon serves as the right-hand man of the country’s most notorious mass-murdering general, Prabowo Subianto, who was defeated by Jokowi in the 2014 election.
Munarman, who has been videotaped at a ceremony in which a roomful of young men swear allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is also a corporate lawyer working for the Indonesian branch of the mining colossus Freeport McMoRan, now controlled by Carl Icahn, President Trump’s friend and deregulation adviser. Although the Trump connections appear to be very important for the coup plotters, it is unknown whether Trump or Icahn have any direct knowledge of the Indonesian coup movement.
FPI spokesman and corporate lawyer Munarman, indicated with an arrow far left, at a ceremony in which young men swear allegiance to ISIS
Munarman did not respond to requests to comment for this article.
The FPI demonstrations in Jakarta, officially shunned by the country’s top mainstream Muslim groups, have been endorsed in messages from Indonesian ISIS personnel in Syria. The FPI, for its part, has waved black ISIS flags at Prabowo rallies and has officially endorsed the call of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri for Al Qaeda and ISIS to pursue their common fight in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.
The Snowden archive contains numerous documents related to the Islamic Defenders Front, including an Australian intelligence document describing FPI as a “violent extremist group.” The documents include Indonesian-language intercepts of reports by police officials complaining that the Indonesian public distrusts the police because it uses violent groups like FPI. The intercepted Indonesian police reports also note that although FPI is largely a creation of the state security apparatus, it at times escapes the state’s control, particularly when fomenting mob violence, such as in a well-known case in which a man was beaten to death on videotape because he attended a mosque targeted for extermination by the FPI. In one case of murder carried out by an FPI mob, a memo states, police were unable to arrest and detain the FPI suspects because they were afraid the mob would attack and burn the police station.
Another intercept links FPI figures to an offshoot of Jemaah Islamiyah, the jihadist network implicated in the 2002 Bali bombings, and details weapons training delivered by officers of the Indonesian national police special forces to FPI Aceh members.
The NSA had no comment on the content of the intercepts. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
As the FPI’s mass protest movement has proceeded over the last six months, I received detailed information from five Indonesian internal intelligence reports. The reports were assembled by three different Indonesian agencies. Each one was confirmed by at least two current army, intelligence, or palace officials.
One intelligence report asserted that the FPI-led protest movement was being funded in part by Tommy Suharto — son of the former dictator Suharto — who once served time for having a judge who displeased him shot in the head. Tommy’s financial contributions were also affirmed to me by retired Gen. Kivlan Zein. Kivlan, who helped the FPI lead a massive November protest in Jakarta, is currently facing the charge of treason (makar) for allegedly trying to overthrow the government during the recent protest drive. He is also the former campaign chair for Gen. Prabowo, who was defeated by President Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election.
Another report asserted that some funds came from Donald Trump’s billionaire business partner Hary Tanoe, who was repeatedly described to me by key movement figures as being among their most important supporters. Last Friday night, when I sat down with a roomful of such figures — none of whom requested anonymity — they expressed excitement about their closeness to Hary and his personal and financial relationship with President Trump, who along with his son Eric welcomed Hary to Trump Tower and the inauguration. They said they hoped Hary, who is building two Trump resorts in Indonesia, would serve as a bridge between Trump and Gen. Prabowo. Manimbang Kahariady, an executive of Prabowo’s political party, said he had met with Hary three days before. He and others at the meeting were convinced that Hary is telling Trump about the need to back the movement and remove their adversaries, beginning with Ahok.
Tommy Suharto could not be reached for comment. Hary Tanoe declined repeated requests for comment.
A third report asserted that some FPI movement funds came from former president and retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) — information that apparently angered President Jokowi, was leaked to the public, and was in turn denied publicly by an angry SBY who asserted at once that the facts were false and that the government had tapped his phone to get them. Nonetheless, seven current or former army or intelligence officials I spoke to said that SBY had indeed given funds but had channeled them indirectly. One official, retired Adm. Soleman Ponto, who is not a supporter of the coup movement, is the former chief of military intelligence (BAIS) and currently advises the state intelligence agency (BIN). Though he declined to comment directly when I asked him about specific intelligence reports, Soleman said that it was “very clear” that SBY, whom he called a friend, helped fund the movement, “giving through a mosque, giving through a school, SBY is the source.”
More broadly, Ponto said, “almost all the retired military” and “some current military back SBY” in supporting the FPI-led protests and the coup movement. He said he knows this because — in addition to his being an intelligence man — the pro-coup generals are his colleagues and friends, many of whom correspond on the WhatsApp group known as The Old Soldier. The admiral said that for the movement’s military sponsors, the Ahok issue is a mere entry point, a religious hook to draw in the masses, but “Jokowi is their final destination.”
As for the tactic of a straight army assault on the palace in a coup d’etat, Ponto said that would not happen. This one would be “a coup d’etat by law,” resembling in one sense the uprising that toppled Suharto in 1998, except that in this case the public would not be on the revolt’s side — and the army, rather than defending the president, would be working to bring him down. The FPI-led protestors, he said, would enter the palace and congress grounds, then try to get inside and set up camp until someone made them leave.
“It would look like People Power” — the people gathered by FPI and their allies, but in this case, “with everything paid. The military would just do nothing. They only have to go to sleep” and let the president fall.
The admiral’s description of the movement’s strategy matched that of a dozen top officials I spoke to, some of them still active in the aparat — some for the coup, some against it.
Another possible scenario was described by another large group of officials: that the FPI-led rallies would get out of hand, with Jakarta and other cities tumbling into chaos, and the army stepping in and assuming control to save the state. This second, more violent option was discussed in detail when I met in late February, on the record, with FPI movement leaders Ustad Muhammad Khattath and Haji Usamah Hisyam.
Ustad Khattath had been referred to me by the Freeport lawyer and FPI militia chief Munarman, who had declined to see me. Haji Usamah accompanied Ustad Khattath and they gave a joint interview.
(The material in this section is attributed to “they” and presented without quotation marks, because since our interview, Ustad Khattath has been arrested and charged with makar (treason), a legal concept that I view as being unjust and repressive and have denounced when it has been used before.)
Barely mentioning religious questions, they said Indonesia’s problem was New-Style Communism, and the army must be able to step in and guide the situation because Indonesia is not mature, not ready for democracy. Jokowi, they charged, was providing a space for communism, and the only strong organization that can face up to that is the army.
As to their street protest movement, they said, we civilians must be backed by the military, something they said was indeed happening secretly because now under reformasi the military can’t engage in politics. According to Haji Usamah, “It’s an intelligence operation by military personnel, but the army can’t be out front. They give the strategic view and direction. The army doesn’t like the communists.”
They said there are communists in the legislature and the executive branch. They must be targeted. For the street movement, the key strategic and tactical guidance was given to them by an anti-communist general who works with them. The army can only step in if there is chaos. If there is peace, they can’t do anything.
Ustad Khattath and Pak Usamah told me that they don’t want blood, they want peaceful revolution, but also insisted that not long from now there will be a revolution by the umaat, several weeks in the future. The palace is afraid, they said, they are afraid Jokowi will fall. They said the upcoming street actions would all be with revolutionary steps because peace has not yet brought down Ahok.
Ustad Khattath and Pak Usamah told me that if the president does not accede to their demands, there will be more massive action, using a stronger style of pressure, and added that their direct destination will be the president.
They saw the revolution beginning with days-long occupations of the congress and the palace and noted that if the people are hurt by being rebuffed, they will take the shortcut outside the law. Anything could happen. There could be millions that take the law into their own hands. Their position was, remind the president not to break the law by failing to jail Ahok or the people will get mad and out of control. It’s a disorderly situation, one that they felt would resolve itself by the army stepping in.
After Ustad Khattath was arrested by police and charged with treason, Usamah texted me to say he had now taken command of the street actions, just as Ustad Khattath had done after FPI leader Rizieq was brought up on pornography and other charges.
Soon after our interview, I received an army document from an officer inside the aparat that could be seen as providing the template for Khattath’s and Usamah’s remarks about the street actions.
Titled “Analyzing the Threats Posed by the New-Style Communism in Indonesia,” it is a series of PowerPoint slides used for ideological training at army bases nationwide.
New-Style Communism, or Komunisme Gaya Baru, abbreviated “KGB,” is a concept whose menace is framed with sketches of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler — and appears to be broadly enough defined to include any critic of the army anywhere.
Referring to such purportedly communist policies as “free health care and education programs,” the document denounces “idealizing pluralism and diversity in the social system” as a specific “KGB” threat now rising in Indonesia. Using threat assessment techniques drawn from Western intelligence doctrine and texts — excerpts from which are used, sometimes in English — the document warns of the communist enemy “separating the army from people” and “using human rights and democracy issues while positioning oneself as victim to gain sympathy.”
The statement about human rights victims is an apparent reference to figures such as the brilliant social justice advocate Munir Said Thalib, my friend, who was assassinated in 2004 with a massive dose of arsenic that caused him to vomit to death on a flight to Amsterdam, or the victims of the 1965 slaughter of perhaps a million civilians, carried out by the army with U.S. backing in order to consolidate power after an attempted coup.
The 1965 massacre came up when I sat down with retired Gen. Kivlan Zein, who said that if Jokowi refused to accede to the army’s wishes, similar tactics could be deployed again.
Like many officials I spoke with, Kivlan said that the current army-backed street movement and crisis began as a result of the Symposium, a 2016 forum organized by the Jokowi government that allowed survivors and descendants of ’65 to publicly describe what had happened to them and to discuss how their loved ones died. For much of the army, the Symposium was an intolerable outrage and in itself justified the coup movement. One general told me that what most outraged his colleagues was that “it made the victims feel good.” The Symposium, of course, had nothing to do with Gov. Ahok or with religious questions of any kind. It was about the army and its crimes.
“If not for the Symposium, there wouldn’t be a movement now,” Kivlan told me. “Now the communists are on the rise again,” Kivlan complained. “They want to establish a new communist party. The victims of ’65, they all blame us. … Maybe we’ll fight them again, like ’65.”
I was taken aback by that and wanted to make sure I had heard correctly.
“It could happen,’65 could be repeated all over again,” he repeated.
And the reason?
“They are seeking redress.”
In other words, Kivlan was raising the specter of new mass slaughter if the old victims did not learn to forget. Kivlan then went on to detail why the ’65 coup was justified. He said that the ousted president, Sukarno, who was by then the army’s virtual captive, had given an order for the army to take over. The army “was handed power” by the congress.
Could that happen again now, I asked?
“It could,” the general said. “The army could move again now, like Suharto in that era.”
The general told me that last July, Jokowi had visited armed forces headquarters in the aftermath of the Symposium and had told the assembled generals that “he was not going to apologize to the PKI [communist party].”
“If Jokowi sticks with that” — the no-apology stance — “he won’t be overthrown. He will save himself. But if he apologizes, [he is] finished, over,” Kivlan said.
I again wanted to be sure he was really saying the army would take action, like ’65 again.
“Yes, it will secure the situation, including like in ’65.”
“No say surrender,” he concluded in English.
Though Kivlan is regarded as being among the more ideological of the generals, it’s worth noting that many of his colleagues have been toying with ousting Jokowi even if he doesn’t apologize. In that sense, Kivlan belongs to the movement’s moderate wing. Remarkably, the idea of a mere apology to the army’s victims is enough to motivate generals to move to overthrow the president.
Kivlan is often credited with helping to create the FPI, after Suharto’s fall. In our conversation he denied to me that he was responsible for setting up the FPI but went on to discuss in detail how the group was just one example of the broader army and police strategy of creating civilian front groups, sometimes Islamist, sometimes not, that could be used to attack dissidents while keeping the aparat’s own hands clean.
He said that days before the massive Jakarta demonstration of November 4 last year, he received a text message from retired Major Gen. Budi Sugiana asking him “to join and take over the 411 [November 4] movement.”
The mission, he said, was “to save Indonesia,” by joining FPI leader Habib Rizieq on the mobile stage at the demonstration, because “they need someone if [Rizieq] is shot and dead to take over the mass” outside the palace.
In December, Kivlan was arrested by the police for trying to overthrow Jokowi, but as we spoke in late February he remained free and had been traveling outside the country. Indeed, he told me he had been carrying out missions for Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, the current armed forces commander, attempting to release Indonesian hostages held in the Philippines.
On the question of who privately backs the movement and who precisely the “communists” are, Kivlan spoke both on and off the record, and both precisely and generally. His characterization of his fellow generals’ stances meshes closely with what the other aparat people said, but, unlike most of them, he said it on the record.
“So many retired military — and in the military — are with the FPI. … Because the goal of the FPI is also against the communists.”
After his discourse to me about ousting Jokowi and taking actions like ’65, I asked him: Does Gen. Gatot — the current armed forces commander — agree?
“He agrees!”
But he noted that as a younger, still-active officer, Gatot has to “be very careful” in his public stances.
Kivlan’s on-the-record remarks about Gatot’s role are consistent with those of other generals and coup people, as well as with the purported remarks of President Jokowi himself. When I asked an official with regular access to the president about a claim that Jokowi had said that “Gatot is the main factor in the coup,” the official replied, yes, the president said it, privately. Gatot did not respond to requests for comment.
As for his old boss Gen. Prabowo, Kivlan also echoed what others said: “Prabowo doesn’t want to be close, but he does it through Fadli Zon.” If he were openly close to the movement, it would be difficult for him, so Fadli Zon is the front. Regarding Gen. Ryamizard, the current minister of defense, Kivlan claimed that “his heart agrees. He agrees with our goal,” but he can’t “speak candidly.”
Kivlan praised the stance of Gen. Wiranto, saying “Wiranto is good.” Kivlan said Wiranto “wants to build harmony” with the movement, often pressing its case from his current post as coordinating minister for politics, law, and security. It was under Wiranto’s command that the FPI was first created. When Wiranto received the FPI’s Rizieq during the demonstrations, he described him as “an old friend.”
Kivlan added that Wiranto, who is himself under indictment for East Timor war crimes, has a “good plan” on the army’s pivotal issue. He is pressing Jokowi for “no human rights trials.”
The strategic elegance of the army push for a coup is that the army wins even if it loses. Even if Jokowi stays in office, the generals will be safer than ever — they think — from human rights trials, since in order to stave off one group of killers, the president has embraced another group of equally murderous generals who have exacted a price.
Foremost among them is Gen. A.M. Hendropriyono, the former BIN chief and CIA asset, who has been implicated in the Munir assassination and a series of other major crimes. Throughout the coup crisis, it has been Hendro’s men — army, intel, police, civilian — who have been leading the anti-coup defense of Jokowi against their colleagues. It is mainly Hendro’s people who have organized the treason arrests and hobbled Habib Rizieq Shihab with pornography charges, as well as charging movement financiers with ISIS money laundering.
In exchange, Hendro and his allies have received what they view as guarantees of immunity from prosecution. And under prevailing aparat rules, if they’re safe, everyone else is as well, since there’s a tacit agreement to reject prosecution of colleagues, even if they’re bitter enemies.
In February, under palace pressure, a Jakarta administrative court declared that the Jokowi administration could duck its legal obligation to officially release a government fact-finding report that openly addressed Hendro’s responsibility for the Munir assassination. Munir’s widow Suciwati and Haris Azhar of Munir’s human rights group, Kontras, denounced that verdict as “legalizing criminality.”
In similar fashion, the coup movement has also been helpful for Freeport. Since last year, the Jokowi government, after decades of state quiescence, has been trying to rewrite the state contract with Freeport and has been dialing back their export rights. At the same time, the government has been shaken by the movement led in part by a lawyer associated with the company.
In early April, after the movement launched the first of what the police claimed were four planned attempts to seize congress and the palace, the Jokowi administration shocked Indonesia’s political world by unexpectedly giving in to Freeport and green lighting new copper exports. The sudden retreat didn’t end the dispute — deep, long-term contract issues remain — but it suggested, as Jokowi officials later told me, that the government now felt its position had been weakened.
In a story with the droll headline “Freeport gets red-carpet treatment, again,” the pro-U.S. and pro-business English-language Jakarta Post observed: “The government has defended its decision, even though there is no legal basis that backs [it]. … Freeport is seen as having dodged the bullet again.”
On April 20, Vice President Mike Pence is due in Indonesia. Jokowi administration officials have been saying privately that they expect Freeport’s demands to be at the top of his wish list. At the meeting of movement figures last Friday, one of them looked at me and exclaimed: “Pence will threaten Jokowi on Freeport!”
Freeport Indonesia did not respond to requests for comment.
Although privately movement leaders and their sponsors spoke incessantly of the army, evading justice, and seizing power, on the streets outside the theme was decidedly religious. Walking among the huge crowd at one action at the Istliqlal mosque near the palace, it was clear to me that although the protest movement was fronted by the FPI, it had drawn a wide swath of people, many of whom were demonstrating simply because they were conservative or felt aggrieved.
The proximate cause of that grievance was Ahok and his alleged blasphemy in suggesting that non-Muslims could lead Muslims. (Ahok is also justly criticized for his evictions of the poor.) It was therefore quite illuminating to hear the leaders of the coup movement privately minimize those themes.
Kivlan surprised me when he remarked offhandedly that Ahok had given the movement a “gift” with his “slip of the tongue” regarding the Quran.
The required public stance of movement leaders was to claim to be forever wounded by Ahok’s remark asking people not to be deceived by rivals trying to use a Quranic verse against him. But here was one of them — with a small smile — acknowledging that strategically Ahok’s statement was welcome, because it had enabled the FPI and its sponsors to shift the balance of power inside the state, elevate themselves from street killers to theologians, and alter the cultural climate to boot. And here he was, accepting that the fateful remark was a “slip of the tongue.”
With that, he not only appeared to be conceding that the blasphemy criminal case against Ahok was bogus — as we spoke, Ahok’s lawyers were arguing in court precisely that he had just spoken loosely, intending no offense — but also that the coup movement’s sole big public issue was something that, in private, they did not take seriously.
Beyond that, when I sat with Usamah and the movement leaders whom he half-joking called his politbureau, they casually contradicted their position that non-Muslims cannot lead Muslims. They did so while discussing Hary Tanoe, who they all effusively praised as their movement’s top supporter — through direct aid and by means of his TV stations, which were admonished by Indonesia’s broadcast commission for unseemly pro-movement political bias and inaccuracy — and their perceived lifeline to President Donald Trump.
Those in the room all agreed they wanted a Prabowo-Hary Tanoe government, perhaps with Hary as president and Prabowo as vice president, or the reverse, depending on the polling.
The catch, which didn’t seem to bother them, is that Hary, like Ahok, is an ethnic Chinese Christian, which if they believed in their own standards should disqualify him from leading Jakarta, let alone Indonesia.
Top photo: A member of the hard-line Islamist vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front shouts slogans after burning an effigy of Jakarta Gov. Ahok in front of Jakarta’s city hall, Dec. 1, 2014.
I think Allan right, just wait and see.. they won DKI governor election, the real target should be 2019 or maybe faster. New PKI is a very hot issue to make Jokowi down, there still one Islam organization called NU who backup Indonesia government from this situation, because they are moderate moslems who fight against FPI
what bothered me, those people know you, the general and some thugs, and still give u info? what they’re goals by giving you this info?
After reading this article, i personally thought that this article isn’t as deep as it’s title.
Many of the author sources aren’t credible as it suppose to be. Including how the ex-general, whose relation isn’t that “friendly enough” to give a crucial and important fact or statement.
Looking back at Alan history with Indonesia military, the bitter sweet of their relations, and the political hand that reach Alan at Indonesia President Election back at 2014. It’s unlikely that faction like SBY and Prabowo maintain close contact with Alan. Especially when their at disadvantage.
But, there still some light that Alan had shed into Indonesian people, and its good, to educate people of Indonesia about the back-stage politics, tricks and twist.
What makes me puzzled is, i might understand when Alan wrote his article back at 2014, but for todays article, what move that Alan hope to achieve.
All is a plot for the coup. Those politicians are hungry of Indonesian money. Human’s greed are boundless. Selling God’s name is one of their way to get into their goal. In the end we will know who will enter Hell and who will enter Heaven. Its not their “judgment” to judge peoples. They only want money money and money. They don’t care about God. They only care about Money, Power and Women.
What’s about you, Joseph?
It’s so sad to read a well-written article that only based on one side only. I for one, know that FPI has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with ISIS. In fact they loathe ISIS more than any of you do.
And about overthrowing the president of Indonesia, actually there’s so much more crisis in here, Indonesia, that none of you outsiders know about.
And Basuki is a discriminating person, not only he did blasphemy towards Islam religion. But he did it over and over again and even once on an international television said that he didn’t regret for the insult he did.
Now, here in our country a governer (ex-governor) who clearly and publicly insulted a certain race and religion which is against the law and written officially in our nations’ law. Is free to roam around and keep on insulting, because of how pathetic the law is Indonesia.
You see, sir, there’s a lot of things that should also be written on your article, and I think they are the importants fact that shoul be written there.
It’s just not fair to have you writing an article in which cornering a certain group without actually knowing what happened in Indonesia.
Sincerely,
Indonesian
I am pretty sure there are a lot of Indonesian, including myself that does not agree with your comment here. So please do not write your comment as if you represent the whole Indonesian, because you are not.
Governor Ahok has never discriminated any racial group as all his programme while he governs helps everyone and never benefits only certain racial group or religion.
Only fanatical and uneducated people will actually think that he has done blasphemy and all of this is not a staged political thing.
Sadly, most Indonesian, like yourself included, are not educated enough to seperate pilitics and religion. They fanatically love their religion to the point that they dont actually understand their religion and even to see the good in other people.
So DO NOT state a comment as if the whole Indonesian population agrees with you. Your kind of people disgrace Indonesia as a country
I agree with you. Aqies definitely doesn’t represent me as an Indonesian. Not in a million years. Unfortunately all this sosial media forums are so easily obtain for people like him to voice their bigoted opinions does a lot of harm than good.
You are a massive liar. The moment I read that you consider Basuki as a blasphemer, that is the moment I know for sure that the rest of your comment is not worth reading. And FPI does not have anything to do with ISIS? Typical taqiyya from the desert.
Tell your bosses to give you more propaganda funds because obviously you’re not doing your best here. Maybe they should raise your contract to $5,000 per post or something so you can start making a better effort at dividing & conquering Indonesia.
You, sir, is the one who actually doesn’t know anything that happened in Indonesia simply because of your close minded tendencies. No matter how much you wanted to portray Basuki as a tyrant, he isn’t and he never is. However, the law in Indonesia is pathetic, this is true. We could see this from the leader of the “beloved” FPI who has been proven to actually discriminate, spread hate and violence, insult tradition and religion, and pornographic law violation with actual videos which, for example, you can see from one in the article, yet he still roams around freely. Boy, don’t use a double standard.
Sincerely,
Also an Indonesian, born and raised
A very poignant article. It is also a timely reminder for those of us here in New Zealand and across the ditch, in Australia; where ANZAC Day commemorations are being held.
The significance of the role played by Commonwealth Forces led by Britain together with NZ and Australia during the 1965-66 “Confrontation”, is completely lost on most of our populations.
As supporters of Suharto’s anti-Communist murderers, the ANZUK forces were equally culpable for the atrocities that were committed. All of this was done under the umbrella of the US, who supplied funding and materiel for Suharto’s forces.
I lived across the Strait in Terendak, Malaysia at the end of the official “Malay Emergency” in 1961. I vividly remember the “Race” riots that took place in 1969. At that time, the riots were being coordinated to target the Malaysian Chinese community who were falsely accused of being agents of Red China. It turned out that the riot provocateurs, were in fact anti-Communist agents working in league with the CIA and Suharto’s fascist forces in Indonesia.
By the end of the 1960’s-71 period when NZ and Australia withdrew from Vietnam; their forces had been quietly supporting Suharto throughout his deadly campaign against the people of East Timor and West Papua.
The West Papuan campaign by Indonesia’s TNI forces, continues to this day. Both NZ or Australia refuse to intervene in any capacity, to stop the Genocide being committed by Indonesian forces. What this amounts to is, its a big thankyou by the “5-Eyes Anglo War Alliance”, to Fascist Indonesia for their anti-Communist efforts in the past and present.
Sir Allan, I really appreciate your hard work though it seems that the Indonesian military is pressing you down. The truth about 1965 is actually obvious; about the coup, yet there is no solid proof to be stated officially as the history. It is indeed a sad condition where the general public seem to be blind in these parts of Indonesian politics, and the majority of the people are not highly educated. I am truly touched by your effort, your article may be the major factor for the public to realize the movements. Thank you
“Indonesia’s military says it’s reporting an online news site to the police after it wrote about an Intercept story alleging current and retired generals plotted to overthrow President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.”
[…]
“The military’s statement Friday said an account of the Intercept story published by the Indonesian site Tirto was either “not true” or a “hoax.””
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/21/indonesia-military-threatens-news-site-after-coup-story.html
https://indonesianhumanist.blogspot.co.id/2017/04/allan-nairn-ahok-hanyalah-dalih-untuk.html
Great article! In the US we don’t hear much about this part of the world.
Trump is a fraud and all around heap of shit. We’ve known this. The question always has, and still is, what are we going to do about it? Just be abused for 4+ years? Or get in the streets and start a revolution?
Unfortunately Hillary was even worse. I was, and still am, one of those who thinks that Trump was the better choice if only because he was the lesser evil. And yet none of the bullcrap your lot predicted would happen if Trump took office has happened – Antifas are the only ones who have been starting sh*t up. Or are you saying that if Trump lost, his supporters would have done the same thing as the Antifa are currently doing? Stop projecting and lying.
As an 18-year old who is taught to believe that the election was ONLY about religion by the media, I am surprised by how wrong I was. This is eye-opening, especially to an Indonesian citizen like myself. It is truly distraught regarding, not only Jakarta, but Indonesia’s future. I am very much intrigued and would like to know and learn more about the real political situation in Indonesia, so keep on reporting! :)
Dear Sir.
Very Great Information.
Keep and Touch.
God Bless You, Amen.
Regards.
Ronin D.
I hope you are able to interview John Pilger about this too.
Allan Nairn, thank you. Trully, it is an in depth investigation. I agree when you states that they elevate themselves from street killers to theologians. We believe that the most important of them that is kudeta. This bad news. We know that Mr. Jokowi is a clean politician and the best president now. My Presiden Mr. Jokowi, hopefully you can find the best solution of this issue. I always remember you in my prayers, be struggle.
I know this will happen, and no one believe me.
Before this news was realesed, we have shared and realese their fucking planing
http://www.marikitabongkar.com/2017/04/bongkar-pendana-dibalik-sekjen-fui-dan.html
This is an in-depth investigation, I unable to avert my eyes when reading this. However, I don’t think that the Prabowo-Hary Government will be an ideal one. This avaricious (hary) will struggle if he runs for the presidential election.
Money talks
Allan, great reporting, as always! It was very stunning to hear non-anonymous confirmation from these people, some of whom complicit, about the eventual objective of the mass protest movement being to overthrow Jokowi. I wonder if you could share your insight as to what you think their motive was for sharing that kind of potentially self-implicating information with you.
Yes especially odd given the author’s troubled history w Indonesian military that they would now freely offer such self-incriminating evidence, don’t you think? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Nairn
Thank you so much for your reports. I appreciate it. Could you send to my email address about this report, please?
I really care about Jakarta even I was not Jakarta citizen. But Jakarta is very important because Jakarta is our capital city of Indonesia.
Now, the Darkness of Jakarta is coming. Jakarta has been dominated by people who tend to corrupt and Jakarta also has been dominated by the JAK IDIOT GENERATIONS.
I look forward to hearing from you ASAP.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the well written article.
More people are paying attention to this country ever since the book “Economic Hitman” hit the shelves years ago, in which it portrays in the involvement of politics with economy of Indonesia with the US.
Indonesia has been lucky to enjoy a somewhat peaceful political and economic stability since 1998. And all that growth and where the country is today is at risk for what is happening both in public and behind the scenes.
When will this nation called “sleeping giant” will actually wake up? Indonesia may never get a clean and hardworking leaders like Jokowi and Ahok again, and probably the country does not deserve them in the first place.
Dear Sirs,
Could you please give me a chance to receive “intercepted publication.
Thank you very much.
What’s your words about US “hands” to make Jokowi elected in 2014?
maybe was yes they did, but now he looks no longer profitable. so they should “help” to throw him. look Iraq : Saddam Hussein
bagaimana bisa “tangan AS” bermain ketika jokowi terlihat mulai mereview Freeport di indonesia, kemudian terang2 menyatakan membela Kemerdekaan palestina, mulai meningkatkan hubungan militer dan ekonomi budaya dengan iran, rusia dan china,….just thingking deeply bay…
“which didn’t seem to bother them, is that Hary, like Ahok, is an ethnic Chinese Christian, which if they believed in their own standards should disqualify him from leading Jakarta, let alone Indonesia”.
–> well the difference between Ahok and Harry, that one is very strict for corruption-then the other one is money oriented.
Hary Tanoe is looking for a way to 2019, the propaganda about his party is so massive on all MNC group network media, and it will be watched viewers in Indonesia until 2019, like it or not. Support for tackling Ahok’s moves is evident in every news broadcasted by MNC media, very negative. Similarly, when large demonstrations of Islamic organizations towards the end of 2016 until early 2017.
Including news related to Jokowi’s work, always framed from a negative point of view prioritizing deficiencies than what has been achieved. Criticism is necessary but MNC media should put it in the portion.
Teuing lah lieur maca na, mendingan neangan duit jang ngeusi beuteung.
Nu penting mah Indonesia Aman, mung aya nu rek nyieun rusuh di SIKAT ku Aing.
No other investigative journalist writing in English comes close to having the deep and broad knowledge of the intricacies of the cynical and corrupt relationships between American forces of capitalist imperialism and their brutal clients and proxies in Indonesia. Certainly, no one else has the extraordinary range of access to the various parties Mr. Nairn enjoys.
It is a pleasure to see his work here, although reading that work is often painful and distressing.
Thank you, Allan, for the skill, effort, persistence and bravery you have brought to reporting from this part of the world (and other scary places!) for so many years.
Hi,
FYI Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) has today 19-4-2017 just been reported as conceding defeat to the rival candidate, Anies Baswedan in the runoff for governor.
The results were attained from a “quick count” which are samples of votes taken from polling stations… The full count may take a few weeks (I believe).
(Mr Nairn I needed to see your article report here… Thanks. I’d had ideas of this and that yet not to this extent nor with the lucidity I read now.)
This article is merely NOT A GREAT FICTION bedtime story
?
Americans are the Masters of Destruction and Deception – the greatest killers History of Mankind has ever
known. If nobody strong enough rises up and stops them they will continue to exploit and destroy and the world believing their billions will protect them from any consequences. If there exists nobody sane and strong enough to oppose them – then this makes the future of mankind bleak and desperate. History proves the Anglo-Saxon Americans can not be the solution of the world’s problems. History in fact proves that it has always been and perhaps may always be the problem. Domination control power – is a stimulant stimulating for narcissistic individuals. How can a county that was founded and established by the eradication genocide of 25-74 million indigenous human beings (who made the fatal mistake of assuming since they resembled them they must be similar to them) in order to steal their land, a government that has lied repeatedly and continues to lie in order to justify waging war and going around the world killing any one they feel like be allowed to set the moral and ethical stands of the world and where America’s new Puppet UN Ambassador, Nikki Halley can declare we, ‘the United States is the conscience of the world” without a single nation demurring objecting protesting cat calling laughing and being called delusional i.e., insane. And America continues to export their national narcissistic mental illness around the world. They have overturned probably 35 democratically elected governments since the turn of the century because they have simply refused to pledge allegiance to the United States of Destruction and Mental Misconceptions.
“Those who confront us wishing to deny our dominance (over them) will have to deal with us.” Ashton
Carter, USA, Obama’s Sec of Defense, 2014
“If nobody strong enough rises up and stops them they will continue to exploit and destroy and the world believing their billions will protect them from any consequences.”
Or, Americans evolve mentally and spiritually, and stop killing & destroying for money, profit, and convenience.
Protecting Freeport was arguably behind Obama’s decision to lift the Kopassus funding ban in 2010, thereby releasing US military supplies to the infamous Indonesian death squads responsible for murdering church and tribal leaders in West Papua. http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/6713
One way mass murders can avoid prosecution is over throw the legitimate government, usually with assistance from the US. Another element of this article facing most so called “democracies” is “communism”. We have seen the failure of neo-liberalism as it is being replaced by a much worst system ….. neo-fascism as witnessed by the current regime in the US. This is evident in the article when it is mentioned Pence is on his way to represent Freeport. Both of these political ideologies will be replaced. The self proclaimed Masters of the Universe know this and are willing to kill millions, indeed, billions to hold on to their vulgar riches.
The U.S. is behind everything bad that happens in Indonesia, starting with the overthrow of Sukarno by Suharto in 1965 that killed 1-3 million people and in which the CIA was heavily involved, to the East Timor situation, to this. (This situation was said to be the original reason that the U.S. was involved in Vietnam, but the anti-communist hardliners freaked out about their domino theory, so the U.S. stayed in Vietnam even after Sukarno was overthrown.) If anyone knows about Indonesia it’s Allan Nairn, who reported from that region decades ago and was brutally beaten by the Indonesian military for doing so.
you see, the opposite side where allan nairn think supposed to be the good side is nowhere to be clean and just..both affiliated with certain banker and james riady and its Clinton connection and finally trump can be found at their circle so all of this is bullshit..
Yes & especially odd given the author’s long troubled history w Indonesian military that they would now freely offer him such self-incriminating evidence, don’t you think? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Nairn
emperor trump is not about to support legitimate governments. Our emperor can relate better to dictators, and the likes. emperor trump is intimated by heads of state who are smarter than him, and that is all of the heads of state, but feels quite at home when dealing with liars, thugs, despots, and the nefarious types, the birds of a feather syndrome.
Our emperor is shallow, rude, stupid and ……but he is ours, like it or not, thanks to corporations having the right to vote.
Why, this couldn’t possibly be related to the future geopolitical feuds in the South China Sea, could it? This couldn’t be related at all to the massive amounts of Oil and Natural Gas in the area. I know we already give billions to the Kingdom of Brunei, which have declared by the book Sharia Law in recent years, but that’s just a coincidence, right? There’s no way we should expect our children, the next generation of American GI’s, to be deployed fighting more proxy wars well into the 21st Century…
Regime change are US!
The working premise of the political and economic elite in our country is that the survival and growth of the US (more specifically the elite) is dependent on continuous destabilization of other countries. And, to be pragmatic, there is a degree of truth to this – to the extent that we as Americans are unwilling to lower our standard of life.
I am not advocating. Just stating the math! Work the numbers – resources, energy, population, growth, competition, coalition, … We cannot compete in a level playing field – so, we level the players before we get on the field!
I corrected, Ahok not the first governor of Jakarta Chinese descent and Christian. Henk Ngantung was the first Chinese-Indonesian and Christian to serve as Governor of Jakarta. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henk_Ngantung
And that just goes to show, as screwed up politically as America is, there are places in the world that are way worse.
The idea of American generals openly talking about funding and fomenting violent domestic coups against America’s elected civilian officials chills me to the bone. I’m thankful that most of our military and intelligence service members of all ranks, appear not to buy into that idea, which is not to say that there may not be exceptions to that general rule. Obvious American situations come to mind.
Sad state of affairs though for Indonesians.
One can NEVER be sure…..
“President Kennedy had read Seven Days in May shortly after its publication and believed the scenario as described could actually occur in the United States.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_in_May
“JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters” by James Douglass—— describes how JFK had secret contacts with Cuba and Soviet Union without CIA’s knowledge.
The ‘coup’ happened awhile ago…
Naivete is our best defense against knowledge.
Apparently the dumb&dumbers plan for jobs jobs jobs is war war war against islam muslims and moslems. Just what israel wants. But that’s what happens when the wallstreet thieves drain their american victims of return on productivity and affordability. American has it own brand of vampires, they suck dollars.
Islam is false.
Luke, you are idiot
Agree
Yeah. This is Trump through and through.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB174/
A Quarter Century of U.S. Support for Occupation
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/18/trumps-indonesian-allies-in-bed-with-isis-backed-militia-seeking-to-oust-elected-president/
East Timor Truth Commission report uses declassified U.S. documents to call for reparations from U.S. for its support of Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor from 1975 until U.N. sponsored vote in 1999
National Security Archive provides more than 1,000 documents to East Timor Truth Commission after Bush Administration refuses cooperation
Recently Declassified British Documents Reveal U.K. Support for Indonesian Invasion and Occupation of East Timor. 1975-1976
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 174
Edited by Brad Simpson
Director, Indonesia-East Timor Documentation Project
For more information contact:
Brad Simpson – 609/751-8206
[email protected]
Darn that naughty Donald!