By A real soldier, one who does not murder civilians
Oct 5, 2006, 06:49
Read about the new nuclear threat poised by Indonesia further down the page, but first......
Can we believe the Indonesian Government so unselfishly volunteered troops for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon despite the fact Indonesia itself does not recognize the state of Israel? So how it can somehow keep the peace with the Israelis is somehow lost! Of course every nation which volunteers and even provides troops in such peace keeping roles earns itself “brownie points” with the greater international community and the UN. Of course Suharto corruption pardoning Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (AKA “Mini Suharto”) and his efforts to secure a place on the UN Security Council on the basis Indonesia plays an important international peace keeping role (while murderously suppressing their own citizens) adds extra reason for this “gesture”. But we believe there are two greater motivations for Mini Suharto and his military buddies, the chance to earn some long overdue arm sales corruption money and to play a legal “Get out of the military equipment embargo free card".
You see, it appears what the Indonesian Government failed to tell the UN when it offered and had accepted its offer of military peace keeping support it did not have the hardware to fulfill that commitment; Which of course meant that after the UN accepted Indonesia’s generous offer, Indonesia was forced to procure the required military hardware, and quickly. Indonesia has faced various embargoes in the past for buying military hardware including tanks specifically to use on its own people. In addition, it is a well known and practiced process where any and all military sales to Indonesia involve paying hefty bungs, bribes, corruption money and backhanders to the generals and powerful military connected families, e.g. the Suharto’s. It was not just the foreign embargoes that stopped this little earner for a while, for the new multi political partied Indonesian parliament also started to show a keen interest in stopping Golkar loving generals making off of the system; in fact they devised a system to prevent it, which required all arms purchases to be open to bids and totally transparent.
How convenient then the Lebanese situation allowed Mini Suharto and his buddy generals to bypass all that hindrance to acquiring mass human right abuse tools and personal bank balance fillers. Despite total opposition from the two most opposed of the seven Indonesian House of Representative’s legislators, Djoko Susilo and Effendi Choirie, Indonesia is to go ahead and buy 32 armored vehicles from France without public bidding on the basis there is no time in order to fulfill their obligation to the UN; shame Mini Suharto did not think of that before making the offer, but then we are sure he did. In a closed meeting with the TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) and Mini Suharto friendly Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono with the House's Defense Commission, but with opponents Djoko Susilo and Effendi Choirie nowhere to be seen, the decision was made to go ahead with the deal. Oh what joy, closed bidding with the almost automatic certainty of sizeable bungs and military equipment Indonesia can use to suppress its own people once the armor can be brought home to Indonesia. Lovely! Of course the billions these armored vehicles cost could not be used at home to fight poverty, corruption and disease; oh no!
If you have any doubt that the Indonesian military are not just corrupt but also control the country in collusion with the wealthy military connected political families, just look closely. Although the Indonesian media is so controlled even suppressed so as to prohibit reporting these facts directly, they do sometimes make a faux pas while covering other politically acceptable stories. In a Jakarta Post article recently they reported the fact that nine people were arrested for posing as military generals to obtain money from civil public officials on the pretense of being able to help expedite their projects. The group phoned civilian government officials in different provinces and told them they could be of “assistance” in their projects. The group instructed the officials to transfer money to the two bank accounts of the ringleaders, Insp. Gen. Basir A. Barmawi and / or Brig. Gen. Budi Gunawan; Barmawi is chief of the National Police human resources department, while Budi also is a high-ranking police officer. The story was reported as a triumph against fraudsters, but it failed to realize what it also told the outside world. First, police officers even at or should we say especially at that level are as bent as they come. Second the police are not as powerful politically as the military as they should be in a true democracy. Third the attempted fraud shows the Indonesian military are the most corrupt in the world; why else would local government officials pay such sweeteners to people they thought were the army for help with non-military projects? Finally, it confirms that the army chiefs have influence and power over everything, including civil government. If you still have any doubt, ask the smaller political parties outside the Suharto fold what they have to say about this. In another article celebrating the 41 years of hatred and military incompetence called the “TNI” the Jakarta Post says “Outspoken legislators of major political factions criticized what they called the military's resistance to internal reform and its ignorance of the 2004 law on the TNI, which requires the military to withdraw from politics, cease business activities and concentrate on improving its professionalism.” What they are saying, although they are not allowed to say it directly is that although it is against the law for the military to rule Indonesia, they do.
Put this fact in perspective then with the news that the Indonesian Military controlled Government not just supports Iran’s aspirations for nuclear enrichment, but actually wants to become a partner in and share the project! First though, isn’t it strange the world’s media reports every day the intolerable desire of Iran to enrich plutonium yet do not dare make comment about how Indonesia wants to not just support Iran, but also share the resulting “technology”. Recent announcements by the Indonesian House of Representatives attesting to this fact are reported where? Just in the Jakarta Post and once of course, as a “matter of fact” style article citing peaceful motives for the Indonesian’s desire to acquire weapons grade plutonium. Of course the fact that enrichment’s peaceful uses are too cost prohibitive for that reason alone so as to make the notion a joke go missing on the world’s leaders, or does it? Isn’t this just another confirmation of the highly dangerous and duplicitous nature of Bush, Blair and Howard (especially Howard), virtually going to war with Tehran over the issue but not even sniffing at what Jakarta wants? The problem and real questions for us, the real people of the world are of course though; “Does the Indonesian military control Indonesia?”, “Does the Indonesian military have a pronounced record of aggression and human rights abuse?”, and “Do we want Indonesia to acquire nuclear weapons?” BBH (Bush, Blair and Howard) may see benefit in turning a blind eye, can we?
Finally, news in from the USA that shows just how profit orientated and nasty the Indonesian military (TNI) are and shows Indonesia has no place in world affairs and certainly not the UN Security Council. Four Indonesian arms dealers suspected of being agents of the TNI, one being a former Indonesian navy admiral should come as no surprise, have been up to business as usual. The 4 were arrested while trying to procure advanced night vision goggles for both Indonesia and wait for this, for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas. What? But you thought Indonesian claims to playing an important international peace keeping role in an effort to get on the UN Security Council would make a mockery of all of this? Here are Indonesian military agents (denied by Indonesia of course) trying to procure military equipment for a rebel guerilla force in a neighboring country?! My God Yudhoyono, you really are hate mongering money grabbing frauds aren’t you?
No comments:
Post a Comment