TEMPO, No. 45/VII/July 10 - 16, 2007
National
After The Dance
The incident happened despite the presence of thousands of army and police units
assigned to protect President Yudhoyono. Unofficial cakalele dancers approached the
President and almost unfurled the outlawed RMS flag. The authorities are now
blaming each other. In Los Angeles, RMS President Alexander H. Manuputty claimed
the action had long been planned by his followers. "That is the political right of the
Maluku people."
FROM Los Angeles, USA, the boast was repeated for all to hear. "It is time for
Indonesia to return our nation to us," said Republic of South Maluku (RMS) President
Alexander H. Manuputty. Alex has been living in the US for the last four years since
fleeing Indonesia after Indonesian authorities accused him of raising the separatist
RMS flag.
Alex, now 60 years old, is asking the Indonesian government to release those who
have been arrested over the cakalele incident. He is also asking for the injured to be
treated. As for the others, "There's no need to go chasing after them," he said.
Alex says that the RMS—an organization that he claims has a membership of 1.5
million—planned the cakalele dance protest some time ago. The aim was, "To inform
the international community about the real situation in Maluku." Alex has also invited
the Indonesian government to hold a dialog over the issue.
The cakalele incident referred to by Alex involved uninvited dancers that on Friday two
weeks ago succeeded in getting close to President Yudhoyono. The President was in
Ambon to attend a commemoration of National Family Day.
Heavy rain was falling in Ambon when the 28 dancers arrived carrying wooden
machetes and spears. "What do you want?" the head of Maluku Regional Police
Mobile Brigade unit, Sr. Comr. Rahmat Hudail asked one of them. "We want to
dance, Pak," they replied. The unit resumed its patrol.
The President arrived at 9:30am local time. Ambon had been under tight security
since early morning. More than 2,500 police and soldiers were deployed, 355 of whom
were standing guard in the vicinity of the head of state. Everyone entering and leaving
had to present a special identify card signed by a provincial official and the
commander of the Maluku Regional Military Command.
The group of "male dancers" continued on. But because it was felt that they were
disrupting the flow of traffic, a police officer asked them to disband. They were then
taken to a parking area at the Merdeka Square. But they continued to try to find an
opportunity to get inside.
Then a chance presented itself: katreji dancers, performing a dance to greet the
President, had finished their performance and were going back and forth through the
entrance to the square. The uninvited dancers took advantage of the opportunity.
"They followed the katreji dancers through the gate near the governor's office," said
Maluku Regional Police Chief, Brig. Gen. Guntur Gatot Setiawan.
This is when the incident took place. The 28 men took off their shirts in the synod in
preparation for performing a cakalele dance before the President. They leapt to and fro
brandishing their wooden weapons. Ten minutes later, the President, ministers, invited
guests and security personnel realized that something was amiss. The dance was not
included on the agenda. Moreover the dancers then tried to unfurl the blue, white,
green and red RMS flag, which is often referred to as the King's Thread.
Setiawan and his officers with the help of the Presidential Guard escorted them out of
the square. The Anti-terror Special Detachment 88 then took the dancers into
custody. Police confiscated the RMS flag and leaflets demanding that the TNI
(Indonesian Military) and National Police withdraw from Maluku.
l l l
IN the wake of the cakalele incident in Ambon, security agencies in Jakarta have been
left to trade accusations over the breakdown in security. On Monday last week the
office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal & Security Affairs dispatched an
investigation team to Ambon. The team was comprised of Ministerial Secretary Lt.
Gen. Agustadi Sasongko, the Operational Assistant to the TNI's Chief of General
Affairs, Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, and Ministerial Deputy for State Defense Brig.
Gen. R. Simbolon.
According to Sasongko, the investigation team has concluded that there was poor
coordination between the organizers of the event and security agencies. How did it
happen that, "The cakalele dance was not on the agenda but [the dancers] were able
to get in," said the former commander of the Jakarta Military Command. According to
Sasongko, security personnel were duped because the head of the dance group was
wearing an official identification tag from the organizing committee.
This lack of coordination however is a bit strange. A presidential visit to a
region—particularly an area that is considered a trouble spot such as Ambon—would
surely have been prepared for many days in advance. Prior to the President's arrival,
at least two advance teams should have been sent ahead to prepare things, security
in particular.
Former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) head Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono related
how the first advance team usually consists of a military secretary, the head of
protocol at the Palace and the Commander of the Presidential Guard. "The military
secretary acts as the team coordinator," he said.
The advance team brings with it a schedule of events organized beforehand in Jakarta.
The schedule is then adjusted based on the results of the first team's visit. The
second advance team arrives several days before the President. According to
Hendropriyono, in addition to these two advance teams, an official from BIN is also
sent separately.
A military officer with experience in providing security to the President related how in
the lead-up to the arrival of a head of state, the event organizing committee holds both
a dress rehearsal and final rehearsal. Both rehearsals involve all those participating in
the event as well as security personnel.
It is there that they become familiar with the details of each part of the event, the route
that the President will take, the places where participants will change clothes and the
individual security personnel at each security post. "On the actual day, officials must
be in their places in accordance with the dress rehearsal," he said. "No one is allowed
to move."
On the actual day, security is tightened even further. All items that are to be brought
into the venue must be inspected. In the unlikely event of a problem, members of the
Army's Women's Corps and female police officers are even assigned to guard
women's changing rooms.
Some of the soldiers leave their uniforms behind and change into ordinary women's
clothing. Others are assigned to greet the President. "Sometimes, officials engineer
things so that traffic in the direction of the location of the President's visit becomes
congested. The aim being that the movement of a group of demonstrators is
hampered so they can't get near the President," he said.
Preparations such as this were also made during President Yudhoyono's visit to
Ambon. Acceding to the Commander of the Pattimura XVI Regional Military
Command, Maj. Gen. Sudaimady Subandi, preparations had been underway since
early May. Working together with the regional police chief, they also coordinated with
the State Secretary in the week prior to the visit.
According to Janzi Sofyan, a special staff member to BIN chief Syamsir Siregar, it
was during these meetings that his agency alerted them to three matters of concern
that they should be on guard against during Yudhoyono's visit. "They were RMS
flag-raising actions, demonstrations by refugees of the conflict and actions by
environmental activists," he said.
The President has even admitted that he received a warning from his assistant several
days before the visit to Ambon. "Based on this information, I asked that the event be
prepared properly in order that there would be no disruptions," he said several days
after the cakalele dancers were escorted out of Merdeka Square.
With all these additional preparations, the possibly of poor coordination should have
been able to be minimized. Usman Hamid, Coordinator of the Committee for Missing
Persons & Victims of Violence, has revealed that there may have been another
possibility: that the potential for such an incident to occur was already known about
beforehand but neglected for a specific purpose. It is rumored that an officer from the
Military Police intentionally allowed the dancers to gain entrance to the venue.
Sasongko however denies the information. "Don't go casting bad aspersions," he said.
l l l
THE glory days of the RMS were during the mid-1970s. In The Netherlands, they
carried out a number of actions including one on December 4, when several of the
group's members attacked the Indonesian embassy in Den Haag. A government
consultant was killed in the incident.
Following the attack, the Dutch government gave permission for Indonesia's diplomatic
offices to be guarded by members of the elite Special Forces (Kopassus). Whereas it
is customary for local security personnel to take responsibility for foreign diplomatic
missions. "Before there was as many as 15 Kopassus personnel there, but now there
are only four," said Mulya Wirana, a political affairs consular official at the Indonesian
embassy in Holland.
These days, activities by the RMS in Holland are largely unheard of, even though
around 45,000 people from Maluku reside in the country. It was only after the cakalele
dance incident that the RMS issue has resurfaced. On Wednesday last week, several
RMS members went to the Indonesian embassy in Tobias Asserlaan, a diplomatic
office complex area in Den Haag.
The RMS activists put up posters outside the embassy's heavily foliaged fence.
Among other things the posters contained accusations that the Indonesian
government had committed human rights violations. One banner read: "Independence
is the most fundamental human right."
Beyond this, there are not many RMS sympathizers left in The Netherlands: their
numbers can be counted on the fingers of one's hand and many are also of advanced
age. Budi Setyarso, Faisal Asegaaf,Mochtar Touwe (Ambon), Kusmayani Rini
(Brussel)
copyright TEMPO 2003
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