COCHRANE: After President Wahid mentioned your name, you canceled a trip to India and held a press conference. Why? PRABOWO: I knew there was a campaign of rumors. [One hour after the blasts] someone phoned me and said, “Do you know you were accused?” The Americans and British sometimes take 10 or 15 years to solve bombings. Here it takes one hour. I refuse to accept this accusation. I think this is a character assassination to destroy my reputation. It’s part of politics.
Wahid has accused Suharto loyalists, including military and political figures, of planting bombs to topple the government. You’re a former military leader. What’s your reaction to that charge? I don’t want to speculate. It could be anybody. Let’s not fall into the trap that happened before. In the past, anything that happened was blamed on the communists. Now anything that happens is blamed on Suharto loyalists.
What kind of people would resort to violence to stop Indonesia from moving toward democracy? There are some groups that do not like democratic culture. If your ideas are only about self-enrichment and increasing your power, then you don’t want open competition.
Aren’t you describing the Suharto loyalists? The regime consisted of a mosaic of people. There were a lot of crooks. We cannot exclude [Suharto loyalists] in the bombings. Police must carry out a very thorough investigation, but I think they will have difficulties.
What do the Suharto loyalists say about the accusations against them? Some of them are hurt, but most of them know this is also part of politics. You need scapegoats. Who are the Suharto family, anyway? Among the Suharto family, I was not considered loyal. Nobody really wants to have a restoration of the Suhartos.
What is your assessment of Wahid’s performance? I would like to see a cooler atmosphere. I think if the present leaders can create an atmosphere that’s less tense, that would be better for everybody.
Should there be a political compromise by which Suharto-era figures are pardoned for past crimes in exchange for an end to the bombing campaign? My friends outside Indonesia [ask] why Indonesia is expending a lot of energy talking about the past. We have 203 million people who need jobs, who need schooling, who need food. If we cannot find [these things], there will be discontent.
Many people say the reform movement in the military has stalled. I think reforms are going on. There’s now more emphasis on human-rights training, human-rights education. But the Indonesian military cannot achieve everything overnight. The Indonesian military is the lowest paid, I think, in the region. This has proven to be detrimental to professionalism and discipline. Once discipline breaks down, what are you going to have? You’re going to have armed gangs.
How worried is the military’s top brass about the political battles between Indonesia’s civilian leaders? Could the military intervene? They are very concerned about the unraveling of our country, and sometimes worried about the government’s lack of decisiveness. I, for one, hope that our civilian leaders will resolve all these problems, because it’s not good for our hopes to achieve a modern democratic society. We should avoid military interference in politics again. We had [that] experience for 30 years. It brought us economic development and stability. But in the end, if we have to mature, we should progress to a modern democratic society, and to peaceful transfers of power.
You have been accused of atrocities during your military career, including killings in Irian Jaya and East Timor. Would you appear before a truth-and-reconciliation commission? We’ll see. It depends on the conditions and the situation. Why not? I’m a citizen of Indonesia. Maybe my nature makes me a very nice scapegoat, but I think that is part of political life here.
