Investigasi Allan Nairn: Ahok Hanyalah Dalih untuk Makar
Rekan-rekan Donald Trump di Indonesia telah bergabung bersama para tentara dan preman jalanan yang terindikasi berhubungan dengan ISIS dalam sebuah kampanye yang tujuan akhirnya menjatuhkan Jokowi. Menurut beberapa tokoh senior dan perwira militer dan intelijen yang terlibat dalam aksi yang mereka sebut sebagai "makar", gerakan melawan Presiden Jokowi diorkestrasi dari belakang layar oleh beberapa jenderal aktif dan pensiunan.
Pendukung utama gerakan makar ini termasuk Fadli Zon, Wakil Ketua DPR-RI dan salah satu penyokong politik Donald Trump; dan Hary Tanoe, rekan bisnis Trump yang membangun dua Trump Resort, satu di Bali dan satu di dekat Jakarta.
Laporan tentang gerakan menjatuhkan Presiden Jokowi ini disusun berdasarkan sejumlah wawancara dan dilengkapi dokumen dari internal tentara, kepolisian, dan intelijen yang saya baca dan peroleh di Indonesia, juga dokumen Badan Keamanan Nasional AS (NSA) yang dibocorkan Edward Snowden. Banyak sumber dari dua belah pihak yang berbicara tanpa mau disebutkan namanya. Dua dari mereka mengungkapkan kekhawatiran atas keselamatan mereka.
Usaha Makar
Protes besar-besaran muncul menjelang Pilgub DKI Jakarta 2017. Mereka menuntut petahana Gubernur Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Ahok, dipenjara atas tuduhan penistaan agama. Dengan pendanaan yang baik dan terorganisir, demonstrasi berhasil mengumpulkan puluhan ribu–beberapa sumber menyebut hingga jutaan–di jalanan Jakarta.
Dalam perbincangan dengan tokoh-tokoh kunci gerakan perlawanan terhadap Ahok, diketahui kasus penistaan agama ini hanya dalih untuk tujuan yang lebih besar: menyingkirkan Joko Widodo dan mencegah tentara diadili atas peristiwa pembantaian sipil 1965–pembantaian yang dilakukan militer Indonesia dan didukung pemerintah AS. Aktor utama dalam 'serangan pembuka' yang berperan sebagai penyuara dan pendesak adalah Front Pembela Islam (FPI), yang diketuai Rizieq Shihab. Bersama Rizieq, dalam rantai komando juga ada juru bicara dan Ketua Bidang Keorganisasian FPI, Munarman, serta Fadli Zon.
Munarman, yang sempat terekam hadir dalam pembaiatan massal kepada ISIS dan Abu Bakar al Baghdadi, adalah pengacara yang bekerja untuk Freeport McMoran, yang saat ini dikendalikan oleh Carl Icahn, sahabat Donald Trump. Meski koneksi Trump tampak penting dalam plot makar ini, belum diketahui apakah Trump atau Icahn punya hubungan langsung. Sementara Munarman tidak menanggapi permintaan komentar untuk artikel ini.
Arsip Snowden menyimpan banyak dokumen terkait FPI. Termasuk di dalamnya dokumen yang menuliskan bahwa kepolisian Republik Indonesia tak berani menangkap FPI karena takut serangan balik, dan dokumen lain yang memaparkan FPI adalah cabang dari Jemaah Islamiyah, jaringan jihad yang terlibat dalam Bom Bali tahun 2002, dan dokumen pengiriman senjata api dari Kepolisian Republik Indonesia untuk latihan anggota FPI Aceh. NSA dan Gedung Putih tak merespons tulisan ini.
Sementara gerakan protes besar-besaran yang digelar FPI berlangsung selama enam bulan terakhir, saya mendapatkan informasi yang rinci dari lima laporan internal intelijen Indonesia. Laporan-laporan itu disusun oleh tiga agen pemerintah Indonesia. Seluruhnya dikonfirmasi oleh sedikitnya dua tokoh militer, intelijen, atau staf istana.
Salah satu laporan menyatakan bahwa gerakan ini sebagian didanai Tommy Soeharto--anak diktator Soeharto--yang pernah masuk bui gara-gara menembak mati hakim yang memvonisnya bersalah. Sumbangan finansial Tommy juga diakui oleh Jenderal (Purn) Kivlan Zein. Kivlan sendiri, yang membantu FPI memimpin protes besar-besaran di Jakarta pada November lalu, sedang menghadapi ancaman penjara dengan tuduhan makar. Ia juga bekas pemimpin tim kampanye Prabowo dalam pemilu 2014.
Laporan lain menyatakan bahwa sebagian dana berasal dari Hary Tanoe, miliuner rekanan bisnis Donald Trump. Para tokoh penting gerakan protes itu--beberapa di antaranya saya temui pada Jumat silam--berkali-kali menekankan kepada saya bahwa Hary adalah salah satu pendukung mereka yang terpenting. Mereka berharap Hary dapat jadi penghubung antara Prabowo dan Trump.
Manimbang Kahariady, salah seorang pejabat Partai Gerindra, mengaku ia berjumpa Hary tiga hari sebelum pertemuan kami. Ia dan tokoh-tokoh gerakan yang lain yakin bahwa Hary memberitahu Trump mengenai pentingnya mendukung mereka dan menyingkirkan lawan-lawan mereka, dan itu dimulai dari Ahok.
Tommy Soeharto tak dapat dihubungi untuk dimintai keterangan. Harry Tanoe menolak berkomentar.
Laporan ketiga menyatakan bahwa sebagian dana gerakan FPI berasal dari mantan presiden dan Jenderal (Purn) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)--informasi yang membikin jengkel Presiden Jokowi ini terbongkar kepada khalayak dan kemudian ditanggapi SBY dalam mode marah. SBY langsung menyatakan bahwa itu dusta belaka dan pemerintah telah menjahatinya dengan cara menyadap teleponnya.
Tujuh staf intelijen/militer aktif dan pensiunan menyatakan kepada saya bahwa SBY memang menyumbang untuk aksi protes FPI, tetapi menyalurkannya secara tidak langsung. Salah satu informan tersebut adalah Laksamana (Purn) Soleman Ponto--bukan pendukung gerakan makar--mantan Kepala Badan Intelijen Strategis (BAIS) dan penasehat aktif Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN). "SBY menyalurkan bantuannya lewat masjid dan sekolah," kata Soleman.
Hampir semua pensiunan tentara dan sebagian tokoh militer, menurut Soleman, mendukung tindakan SBY tersebut. Ia mengetahui hal ini karena -- selain keterlibatannya di dunia intelijen -- jenderal-jenderal pro makar adalah rekan dan kawan-kawannya, banyak di antara mereka berhimpun dalam grup WhatsApp "The Old Soldier".
Menurut Soleman, para pendukung gerakan makar di kalangan militer menganggap Ahok cuma pintu masuk, gula-gula rasa agama buat menarik massa. "Sasaran mereka yang sebenarnya adalah Jokowi," katanya.
Caranya tentu bukan serangan langsung militer ke Istana Negara, melainkan "kudeta lewat hukum", mirip-mirip kebangkitan rakyat yang menggulingkan Soeharto pada 1998. Hanya, kali ini publik tidak berada di pihak pemberontak--dan tentara nasional Indonesia, alih-alih melindungi Presiden, lebih senang ikut menggerogotinya.
"Makar ini bakal kelihatan seperti pertunjukan People Power," ujar Soleman. "Tetapi karena semuanya sudah ada yang mengongkosi, militer tinggal tidur", dan presiden sudah terjengkang saat mereka bangun.
Skenario lainnya: aksi-aksi protes yang dipimpin FPI bakal menggelembung kelewat besar, membikin Jakarta dan kota-kota lain kacau-balau, lalu militer datang dan menguasai segalanya atas nama menyelamatkan negara. Kemungkinan penuh kekerasan ini dibicarakan secara rinci oleh dua pemimpin FPI, Muhammad Khattath dan Usamah Hisyam, saat saya bertemu mereka Februari lalu (Usamah adalah penulis biografi SBY yang berjudul SBY: Sang Demokrat).
Lebih dari urusan keagamaan, menurut mereka masalah terbesar Indonesia saat ini adalah komunisme gaya baru, dan militer harus siap turut campur dan menggembalakan keadaan karena Indonesia belum cukup dewasa untuk demokrasi. Jokowi, kata mereka, menyediakan lahan bagi komunisme dan satu-satunya organisasi yang cukup kuat buat menghadapi komunisme ialah tentara nasional.
Mereka mengaku sudah punya daftar orang-orang komunis di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat dan pemerintah yang mereka incar. Di lapangan, mereka mengikuti panduan taktik dan strategi dari seorang jenderal antikomunis yang bekerja bersama mereka. Tentara hanya mungkin ikut campur bila ada kekacauan. Dalam keadaan damai, mereka tak dapat berbuat apa-apa.
Khattath dan Usamah berkata kepada saya bahwa mereka tidak menginginkan pertumpahan darah. Mereka ingin kudeta damai, tetapi juga menekankan bahwa dalam beberapa pekan ke depan bakal ada revolusi oleh umat. Istana ketakutan, kata mereka.
Setelah Khattath ditangkap polisi dengan tuduhan makar, Usamah mengirimkan pesan kepada saya bahwa kini ia mengambil kendali perjuangan di lapangan--sebagaimana peran Khattath setelah imam besar FPI Rizieq Shihab digembosi skandal seks dan masalah-masalah lain.
1965, Lagi
Segera setelah wawancara kami selesai, saya menerima dokumen dari seorang perwira militer, yang bisa dianggap sebagai template untuk komentar-komentar Khattath dan Usamah tentang aksi-aksi jalan. Berjudul “Analisis Ancaman Komunis Gaya Baru di Indonesia”, dokumen tersebut merupakan rangkaian salindia powerpoint yang digunakan sebagai materi pelatihan ideologis di tangsi-tangsi militer seantero Indonesia.
Komunisme Gaya Baru, disingkat “KGB”, adalah sebuah konsep yang mengisahkan ancaman komunis melalui cerita-cerita tentang sosok Stalin, Pol Pot, dan Hitler—dan tampaknya ancaman ini cukup luas sampai-sampai mencakup siapapun yang mengkritik TNI.
Mengacu pada kebijakan yang dituding berwatak komunis seperti “program kesehatan dan pendidikan gratis,” dokumen itu mencela “pluralisme dan keragaman dalam sistem sosial” sebagai ancaman khas “KGB” yang sedang pasang di Indonesia. Dengan menggunakan teknik penilaian ancaman (threat assessment techniques) yang diambil dari nukilan-nukilan doktrin dan teks intelijen Barat—kadang ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris—dokumen tersebut memperingatkan bahwa kaum komunis “sedang memisahkan tentara dari rakyat” dan “memanfaatkan isu-isu hak asasi manusia dan demokrasi, seraya memosisikan diri sebagai korban demi meraih simpati.”
Pernyataan tentang korban-korban pelanggaran HAM jelas merujuk pada tokoh-tokoh seperti Munir Said Thalib, teman saya, seorang pembela keadilan sosial yang brilian, yang dibunuh pada tahun 2004 dengan dosis besar arsenik yang menyebabkan dia muntah sampai mati dalam sebuah penerbangan ke Amsterdam; atau korban pembantaian 1965 yang berjumlah sekitar satu juta warga sipil, yang dibunuh oleh tentara dengan dukungan AS dalam rangka mengonsolidasikan kekuasaan setelah percobaan kudeta.
Ihwal pembantaian 1965 muncul ketika saya berbincang dengan Jenderal (Purn) Kivlan Zein, yang mengatakan bahwa jika Jokowi menolak tunduk pada keinginan tentara, taktik serupa bisa dikerahkan lagi.
Sebagaimana banyak pejabat yang sempat berbincang dengan saya, Kivlan menyatakan gerakan jalanan yang didukung tentara dan krisis saat ini buntut dari Simposium 1965, yang memungkinkan penyintas dan keturunan korban '65 untuk membicarakan secara terbuka apa yang telah menimpa mereka dan menceritakan bagaimana orang-orang yang mereka cintai meninggal. Bagi sebagian besar tentara, simposium tersebut adalah kekurangajaran yang tak bisa diterima dan dengan sendirinya menjustifikasi gerakan kudeta. Seorang jenderal mengatakan kepada saya bahwa yang paling membuat marah rekan-rekannya adalah karena simposium itu “menyenangkan korban.” Simposium itu, tentu saja, tidak ada hubungannya dengan Gubernur Ahok atau persoalan agama mana pun, melainkan soal tentara dan kejahatannya.
“Kalau bukan karena Simposium itu, gerakan seperti sekarang ini tidak akan ada,” kata Kivlan. “Sekarang komunis sedang bangkit lagi,” keluh Kivlan. ”Mereka ingin mendirikan partai komunis baru. Para korban '65, mereka semua menyalahkan kami.... Mungkin kita akan lawan mereka lagi, seperti tahun '65.”
Saya terkejut dengan pernyataan itu. Saya ingin memastikan saya tidak keliru mendengarnya.
“Bisa saja terjadi, '65 bisa terulang lagi,” ulang Kivlan.
Alasannya?
“Mereka mencari keadilan yang setimpal.”
Dengan kata lain, Kivlan sedang membangkitkan momok baru pembantaian massal jika korban tidak berusaha melupakan. Kivlan menjelaskan secara rinci mengapa kudeta '65 dibenarkan. Dia mengatakan bahwa presiden yang digulingkan, Soekarno, yang saat itu ‘ditawan’ oleh tentara, telah memberikan perintah kepada angkatan bersenjata untuk mengambil alih kekuasaan. Dan parlemen telah “menyerahkan kekuasaan” kepada Angkatan Bersenjata.
Saya bertanya, mungkinkah itu terjadi lagi sekarang?
“Bisa saja,” jawabnya. “Tentara bisa bergerak lagi sekarang, seperti Soeharto di era itu.”
Kivlan mengatakan kepada saya bahwa Juli lalu, setelah simposium, Jokowi mengunjungi markas TNI dan menyatakan kepada para jenderal yang berkumpul saat itu bahwa “ia tidak akan meminta maaf kepada PKI.”
“Jika Jokowi tetap berada di jalur itu”—sikap tidak meminta maaf--“Dia tidak akan digulingkan. Dia akan selamat. Tapi jika dia meminta maaf: [dia] Selesai, tamat,” kata Kivlan.
Saya ingin memastikan kembali apakah dia benar-benar mengatakan bahwa tentara akan bertindak seperti di tahun '65 lagi.
“Ya, untuk mengamankan situasi, termasuk seperti tindakan di tahun '65.”
“No say surrender,” pungkasnya, dalam bahasa Inggris.
Meskipun Kivlan dipandang sebagai golongan yang cenderung ideologis di antara para jenderal, perlu dicatat bahwa banyak rekannya mulai kasak-kusuk menggulingkan Jokowi sekalipun Jokowi tidak meminta maaf. Dalam hal ini, Kivlan termasuk dalam sayap moderat. Yang luar biasa, usulan minta maaf kepada korban ternyata cukup membuat para jenderal kebakaran jenggot untuk menggulingkan presiden.
Kivlan sering disebut-sebut sebagai salah satu orang yang berjasa menciptakan FPI setelah Soeharto jatuh. Dalam percakapan kami, Kivlan membantah ikut bertanggung jawab merancang FPI, namun dia terus membahas secara rinci bagaimana kelompok tersebut hanyalah salah satu contoh yang lebih luas dari strategi tentara dan polisi untuk menciptakan kelompok-kelompok sipil binaan—yang kadang bercirikan Islam, kadang tidak—yang dapat digunakan untuk menyerang para pembangkang seraya mencuci tangan aparat.
Kivlan menyatakan bahwa beberapa hari sebelum demonstrasi besar-besaran di Jakarta pada tanggal 4 November 2016, ia menerima pesan teks dari Mayjen (Purn)l Budi Sugiana yang memintanya “untuk ikut serta dan mengambil alih gerakan 411.”
Misinya, kata Kivlan, adalah “untuk menyelamatkan Indonesia,” dengan bergabung bersama pemimpin FPI Habib Rizieq di atas mobil komando selama demonstrasi, karena “mereka butuh orang untuk mengambil alih massa [di luar istana], seandainya [Rizieq] ditembak dan mati.”
Pada bulan Desember, Kivlan ditangkap polisi atas tuduhan menggulingkan Jokowi. Namun ketika kami berbincang pada akhir Februari, dia tetap saja bebas dan bahkan melancong ke luar negeri. Dia malah menyatakan sedang melaksanakan suatu misi untuk Jenderal Gatot Nurmantyo, Panglima TNI saat ini, yakni berupaya membebaskan para sandera Indonesia di Filipina.
Soal pertanyaan siapa yang diam-diam membekingi gerakan tersebut dan siapa yang betulan “komunis”, Kivlan berbicara secara on the record dan off the record, secara persis dan umum. Karakterisasinya atas sikap kawan-kawannya sesama jenderal sangat berkaitan erat dengan sikap aparat lainnya yang banyak diceritakan orang. Namun, tidak seperti kebanyakan dari mereka, Kivlan mengatakannya secara on the record.
“Begitu banyak pensiunan militer—dan yang masih aktif dalam militer—yang bersama FPI.... Karena FPI pun bertujuan melawan komunis.”
Setelah apa yang dia bicarakan tentang penggulingan Jokowi dan mengambil tindakan seperti pada tahun '65, saya bertanya: apakah Jenderal Gatot—Panglima angkatan bersenjata saat ini—setuju?
"Dia setuju!"
Tapi dia pun menambahkan, sebagai perwira yang masih aktif, Gatot harus “sangat berhati-hati” mengambil sikap di depan publik.
Pernyataan on-the-record Jenderal Kivlan tentang peran Gatot konsisten dengan jenderal-jenderal lainnya dan para penggerak kudeta, serta dengan pernyataan yang diduga bersumber dari Presiden Jokowi sendiri. Saya pun bertanya kepada seorang pejabat yang memiliki akses rutin ke presiden tentang klaim yang dilontarkan Jokowi, “apakah Gatot merupakan faktor utama dalam kudeta tersebut?” Pejabat itu menjawab, ya, presiden mengatakan itu, dalam pertemuan tertutup. Gatot tidak merespons permintaan tanggapan untuk artikel ini.
Mengenai bos lamanya, Prabowo, Kivlan berkata: "Dia tak mau dekat-dekat, tetapi dia terlibat melalui Fadli Zon." Prabowo akan kesulitan jika terlihat mesra dengan gerakan itu. Sedangkan mengenai menteri pertahanan Ryamizard, Kivlan bilang "hatinya setuju dengan tujuan kami, tetapi tidak dapat bicara."
Kivlan memuji cara Wiranto menempatkan diri. "Wiranto bagus," katanya, "karena dia mau bikin harmoni dengan gerakan" dan memperjuangkan kepentingan mereka dalam kapasitasnya selaku Menteri Koordinator Politik, Hukum, dan Keamanan.
Kivlan menambahkan bahwa Wiranto, yang terancam dakwaan kejahatan perang di Timor Leste, punya rencana bagus untuk perkara genting yang dihadapi tentara. Ia mendesak Jokowi supaya "tak ada pengadilan HAM."
Elegannya strategi mendorong kudeta itu adalah militer akan menang sekalipun kudeta gagal. Meski Jokowi tetap menjabat presiden, para jenderal akan aman--menurut mereka--dari pengadilan HAM. Sebab, untuk menyingkirkan segerombolan pembunuh, presiden harus merangkul kumpulan jenderal yang tak kalah bengisnya.
Yang terdepan di antara mereka adalah A.M Hendropriyono, mantan Kepala BIN dan aset CIA, yang terlibat dalam pembunuhan Munir serta serangkaian kejahatan besar lain. Sepanjang krisis ini, orang-orang Hendrolah (tentara, intelijen, polisi, sipil) yang mengepalai benteng pelindung Jokowi. Orang-orang Hendrolah yang mengatur penangkapan-penangkapan atas nama kudeta dan memincangkan Rizieq Shihab dengan skandal bokep, juga menghajar sumber-sumber dana gerakan dengan tuduhan pencucian uang ISIS.
Gantinya, Hendro dan konco-konconya memperoleh jaminan kekebalan dari peradilan. Dan dalam aturan aparat, jika mereka aman, semua orang aman. Ada persetujuan diam-diam untuk menolak prosekusi terhadap rekan, sekalipun jika kedua pihak bermusuhan.
Pada Februari, di bawah tekanan istana, pengadilan administrasi Jakarta menyatakan bahwa pemerintahan Jokowi bisa menghindari kewajiban hukum merilis laporan tim pencari fakta yang secara terbuka membahas tanggung jawab Hendropriyono dalam perkara pembunuhan Munir. Janda Munir, Suciwati, dan Haris Azhar dari Kontras, mengecam vonis itu dan menyebutnya sebagai usaha "melegalkan kriminalitas".
Dengan gaya yang mirip, gerakan kudeta juga telah membantu Freeport. Sejak tahun lalu, pemerintah Jokowi, berupaya menulis ulang kontrak negara dengan Freeport dan mengembalikan hak ekspor mereka. Pada saat yang sama, pemerintah diguncang oleh gerakan yang dipimpin pengacara yang bekerja untuk Freeport.
Pada awal April, setelah gerakan permulaan yang polisi klaim sebagai empat upaya merebut Kongres dan Istana, pemerintahan Jokowi mengejutkan dunia politik Indonesia dengan tiba-tiba menyerah kepada Freeport dan memberi lampu hijau ekspor tembaga baru. Mundur tiba-tiba tidak membuat sengketa selesai--lebih dalam lagi, isu mengenai kontrak masih tersisa--tetapi, seperti yang dikatakan pejabat Jokowi kepada saya, pemerintah saat ini merasa posisinya melemah.
Dalam sebuah cerita yang berjudul lucu, “Freeport mendapat karpet merah, sekali lagi,” Jakarta Post menulis: “Pemerintah berusaha membela keputusannya, meskipun tidak ada dasar hukum yang membelakanginya... Freeport dinilai telah menghindari peluru lagi.”
Wakil Presiden Amerika Serikat Mike Pence akan mengunjungi Indonesia pada 20 April. Staf-staf pemerintahan Jokowi menduga, berbisik-bisik, bahwa tuntutan-tuntutan Freeport akan jadi prioritas utamanya. Salah seorang tokoh gerakan, dalam pertemuan kami Jumat lalu, menatap saya dan berseru: "Pence bakal mengancam Jokowi soal Freeport!"
Freeport Indonesia tidak menanggapi permintaan konfirmasi.
Dalih Penistaan Agama
Kivlan mengejutkan saya ketika menyatakan bahwa Gubernur Ahok telah memberi “sebuah berkah” kepada gerakan tersebut dengan "keseleo lidahnya" terkait Al-Maidah ayat 51.
Dalam penampilan mereka di muka publik, para pemimpin gerakan diharuskan mengklaim bahwa mereka selamanya terluka oleh ucapan Ahok. Tapi salah satu dari mereka, dengan senyum simpul, mengakui bahwa secara strategis pernyataan Ahok itu mereka terima dengan senang hati, karena ia memungkinkan FPI dan para sponsornya menggeser perimbangan kekuasaan di Indonesia, melesatkan reputasi mereka dari preman jalanan menjadi pakar agama.
Lebih dari itu, saat saya duduk dengan Usamah dan para pimpinan gerakan lain, yang dengan setengah bercanda ia sebut sebagai "politbiro", mereka secara santai berdebat tentang boleh tidaknya nonmuslim memimpin umat Islam. Mereka melakukan itu ketika mendiskusikan Hary Tanoe, yang secara berlebihan mereka puji sebagai pendukung utama gerakan mereka--melalui bantuan dana langsung dan stasiun televisinya, yang kena tegur KPI karena bias politik yang terlalu pro-gerakan secara tak wajar dan ketidakakuratan dalam pemberitaan--dan garis hidup yang mereka bayangkan terhubung dengan Presiden Donald Trump.
Mereka yang berada di ruangan itu satu suara menginginkan pemerintahan Prabowo-Hary Tanoe, Hary sebagai presiden dan Prabowo sebagai wakil, atau sebaliknya, tergantung poling.
Persoalannya, dan sepertinya tidak terlalu mengusik mereka, Hary adalah seorang China-Kristen seperti Ahok. Apabila standar yang mereka tetapkan kepada Ahok mereka pegang teguh, seharusnya Hary tidak masuk kualifikasi untuk memimpin Jakarta, apalagi Indonesia.
==========
Laporan ini rilis pertama kali di situs The Intercept. Laporan aslinya berjudul: “Trump's Indonesian Allies in Bed with ISIS-Backed Militia Seeking to Oust Elected President”. Tirto mendapatkan izin dari Allan Nairn untuk mempublikasikan edisi Indonesia khusus untuk pembaca Indonesia.
Trump’s Indonesian Allies In Bed With ISIS-Backed Militia Seeking to Oust Elected President
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.
The Coup Movement
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.
Islamic Defense Front headquarters in Jakarta, where a portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs on the wall in 2007. (Photo: Thierry Dudoit/Express-REA/Redux)
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.
Thousands of members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front take part in a protest in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct. 14, 2016, to show their disapproval of Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, who has been charged with anti-Islamic blasphemy. (Photo: Agoes Rudianto/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
“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 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.
An alleged dissident questioned under gunpoint by Indonesian soldiers in 1965. Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
1965 Again
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.”
A visitor walks pass a picture of Suharto at the Suharto museum on May 6, 2016, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
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.
Jakarta’s Gov. Ahok speaks to his lawyers inside the courtroom during his blasphemy trial at the auditorium of the Agriculture Ministry in Jakarta on April 11, 2017. (Photo: Beawiharta/Press Pool via AFP/Getty Images)
Blasphemy as Pretext
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 allegedly 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.
(The-Intercept/Tirto/Berbagai-Sumber-Lain/ABNS)
Post a Comment
mohon gunakan email