President Mini Suharto and the 15th March 44 BC

Oh, I thought when Suharto said "Pardon me" he was talking about his corruption charges!

President Mini Suharto and the 15th March 44 BC
By Brutus
Jan 29, 2007, 04:10

For those of you who did not know or otherwise guess, the 15th March is the middle of March, or rather "Ides Martius" in Latin, and yes the 15th March 44BC is when Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of his senators. Not that we otherwise would compare Yudhoyono (AKA mini-Suharto) with such a famous statesman except for his potential fate. You see, while the president’s wobble machine works overtime to try and convince Indonesians and the world that Yudhoyono is growing in popularity, the number of news stories decrying the president and foretelling of possible leadership assassinations paint a totally different picture.

After the recent very public rift between SBY (Yudhoyono) and Golkar party vice president JK (Jusuf Kalla) when SBY set up a working party with reformer Marsillam Simandjuntak at the helm to monitor JK’s programs; meaning to monitor, accelerate and even control the areas of law enforcement, investment and bureaucracy JK is responsible for. Oh dear, the Golkar vice president having a reformist watch what he does in such key areas?! Of course JK very impolitely said “No way”. Now comes news that the Golkar party have put forward two proposals (how nice, a choice) for SBY to reshuffle his cabinet and reprimand certain ministers for underperforming; hmmm, doesn’t that sound like tit for tat, na-na-na-na-na?

The initiative is lead by Golkar Party leader Priyo Budi Santoso who said 40 percent of the ministers in Yudhoyono's administration had failed, and should be replaced. He did not specify which ministers had failed, but said they were all in the three fields of the economy, people's welfare, and politics, law and security, which we make 5 fields unless you put politics in same tub as law and security of course (hmmm). Commenting further Santoso said "The ministers who have failed should be replaced by new people who can properly interpret the visions of both the President and Vice President.” Of course, make sure the cabinet knows what former dictator Suharto’s Golkar party want to achieve!

Many people believe that SBY being elected as president came about because of behind the scenes support from the Golkar Party; this appears to be very much confirmed as most if not all of SBY’s election promises have been broken while Suharto has received a very generous pardon from SBY. With only 57 seats out of the 550 in the lower house of the national legislature, SBY’s Democratic Party barely holds a candle to the 128 seats held by Golkar and 109 seats held by his ex-boss Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Party of Democratic Struggle (how her party's name became appropriate at the last elections). In fact, even Hamzah Haz, a personal friend and supporter of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, managed to get his United Development Party more seats than SBY’s gang. So SBY clearly needs Golkar support and is just as clearly losing it, which is a worry, as Golkar equals TNI (the so called armed forces of Indonesia who were trained by the American CIA not as an army but as a counter-insurgency force to control the people and all the people including the president of the RI).

News then that there are reports concerning the existence of a “Subversive Council of Revolution” amongst Indonesian army generals whose number have also been publicly criticizing SBY over his record on corruption, poverty and unemployment, must have him very worried indeed. If ever there was a more poignant reminder of just who is in charge of Indonesia, this is it. Of course former TNI chief of staff Tyasno Sudarto who is widely believed to be the chief of the Subversive Council of Revolution denies this. Wait, what was that? SBY is being criticized for his record on corruption! But it is not just TNI generals who say this; The Indonesian Corruption Watch reports corruption is climbing rapidly under SBY! We all thought Yudhoyono said he had corruption well under control! Does this mean his precious KPK (Indonesian Corruption Commission) and their crack down on fraud and disaffected officials rather than corruption has finally gained official recognition as being the greatest fraud in Indonesia? Now also ran corruption supremo Megawati Sukarnoputri, who once clearly intimated her entire cabinet was bent to Tempo Magazine and who is credited with taking bungs from wealthy poultry industry families to deny H5N1 bird flu existed in Indonesia when it did, has also joined in the fray against SBY.

While the widow of murdered human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, Suciwati, as well as other widows of other murdered Indonesians all believed to perished at the hands of BIN (Indonesian Intelligence Agency) and / or TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) were protesting outside SBY’s palace because none of the cases had been properly investigated or resolved, activist Hariman Siregar organized a rally demanding the revocation of the mandate given to SBY and his administration (they want him chucked out). This hardly seems to paint Yudhoyono as a particularly popular president as his party claim. Of course other politicians were quick to denounce removing SBY using any method other than an election; but they would say that, wouldn’t they? One such politician being Megawati whose own father was removed in a coup. In a country renowned for removing democratically elected leaders out of favour with the TNI and the recent whitewashed coup in Thailand basically being retrospectively given the thumbs up by the USA and assorted muppets (a form of puppets), we don’t think SBY can bank on that one, unlike the billions of dollars milked from the Indonesian state’s coppers perhaps.

Finally, are we to believe the fuel, electricity, food and basic services price hikes under SBY have made him popular with the electorate? After the demonstrations following gasoline doubling in price and news that personal chicken stocks are to be slaughtered, it seems very odd for the Indonesian Government to claim that everyday people love SBY! The picture we get is everybody, but everybody except the Americans and his own failed cabinet hates him!

Yudhoyono, beware the Ides of March. Seems your broken promises, failure to deliver, increased corruption, plus meddling with the affairs of the true rulers of the Republic of Indonesia is going to bring you down with a bump or a bang pretty soon. Who knows, maybe the US are already helping the TNI and Golkar chose your successor!

Wouldn’t it be great if SBY’s masters got rid of him and in a moment of alcohol, narcotics and prostitute employed sexual frenzy as seems so befitting and typical of Jakarta’s elite, gave the job to Suciwati Thalib instead? Oh, if only dreams came true. The best we can hope for is to avoid a nightmare and that someone other than a Suharto supporter or radical Islamic jihadist gets in next time when (not if) SBY gets booted out, and that this day will please come soon!