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Yudhoyono warns military over mystery 'ABS plot'


INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent the country's security establishment into a spin and left political observers divided after alluding to a mysterious campaign by unnamed army officers to unseat him in this year's elections.Displaying his famed Javanese circumlocution, Dr Yudhoyono called in senior military and police officers to the State Palace last week and, in the presence of the media, revealed his concern about a rumoured "ABS" campaign."ABS," he said, stood for "Anyone But S". Who "S" was Yudhoyono would not say, although it seems a clear reference to his own campaign for re-election.Moreover, he looked the officers in the eye and, as the TV cameras rolled, said he did not believe the rumour, before giving them a stern lecture about the importance of political neutrality during this upcoming legislative and presidential polls.What followed was a flurry of meetings among serving and retired military and police officers, many of whom expressed bewilderment at Dr Yudhoyono's suggestion.Jakarta's media were confused, and then hostile as the fallout dominated coverage this week.
The Jakarta Post upbraided him, saying he "childishly reacted to mere gossip". Media Indonesia, another newspaper, urged him "to keep his mouth shut".As his political opponents pounced, majority opinion among the punditry was that Dr Yudhoyono had scored an own goal, revealing a flaky paranoia unbecoming of a statesman in the new, democratic Indonesia.But an Australian National University academic and leading authority on the Indonesian military and its politics, Marcus Mietzner, said SBY, as the President is universally known, could well have cannily outflanked his political adversaries."It's an open secret retired officers are campaigning against him," Dr Mietzner said. "He hasn't accommodated their interests and they are not happy about Aceh (and the peace deal with insurgents there)."The warning shot has been fired very publicly. Those who were trying to mobilise active officers will be thinking twice."About 400,000-strong, Indonesia's armed forces are forbidden from voting but can influence their families' voting patterns and, in the past, have used coercive power to direct voting among villagers.But the military, once a powerful force in politics and society, has been neutered since its halcyon days under Suharto's dictatorship.Dr Yudhoyono, a former four-star general, has been at the vanguard of curbing its influence, most recently curtailing the business activities of the military, a source of great corruption.
No doubt he is conscious of the presidential bid of Prabowo Subianto, a former military chief and Suharto crony who is running a well-financed campaign.Mr Prabowo's political vehicle, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, wants to restore the military's pre-eminence in Indonesia society so it is once again the "tiger of Asia".
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