Jakarta is a politicised city and an energised metropolis looking ahead to the future, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Jakarta
IT’S HARD to know which young Jakartans love more – coffee or political intrigue. Indonesia is the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world, but it is also a global champion when it comes to theories about terrorism and political conspiracies.
Jakarta is a politicised city, and one with many poor people, but it is also an energised metropolis of nine million people looking ahead to the future, and the evidence can be seen at a round-table discussion among an assembly of young entrepreneurs and journalists.
A lot of the conversation centres around the case of Rhani Juliani, a 22-year-old caddie at the elite Modernland golf club outside the Indonesian capital.
Businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen was ambushed on March 14th by two men on a motorbike as he drove his BMW from a game at Modernland. He was shot twice in the head, dying a day later. He had made Rhani his third wife last year.
Subsequently, the head of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Antasari Azhar, was arrested on suspicion of masterminding the crime. Police believe Antasari was romantically involved with Rhani.
Many suspect this is more than just a tug-of-love over a beautiful caddie or a game of golf.
Antasari came under suspicion when police found a text message on Nasrudin’s mobile phone, allegedly from the KPK chief, saying “You know the risk.” In the trial in recent days, a lawyer for three of the defendants charged with killing Nasrudin said his clients believed they were doing their duty when they shot him, and not to obey orders would have meant their death. This opens the possibility of links to someone higher up, either in the KPK or another government agency.
Antasari says he is being framed, possibly by the Attorney General’s Office, because he had led a number of investigations into corruption at the AGO.
The battle in Jakarta right now is to see whether Indonesia’s economic resilience, its democracy and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s attempts to reform the country can win in the face of the old enemies of corruption and power-broking behind closed doors.
Indonesia today is a country transformed from a political basket case under the rule of former dictator Suharto to one of southeast Asia’s model democracies. President Yudhoyono is popular and has just been elected to a second five-year term.
Jakarta teems with political intrigue. In the cafes, hip young Indonesians give equal weight to discussing their plans for the Ramadan fasting season and to theories about who is behind the suicide bombings on July 17th.
It is no mean achievement that the young journalists at the round-table discussion can take laptops and go off and write powerful investigative journalism. Some Indonesian newspapers have five- or six-strong teams of investigative reporters – the kind of headcount most western newspapers have abandoned.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country. Most Muslims follow a moderate form of Islam, and are horrified by the growing global influence of the jihadis.
One of our tablemates in the cafe is a journalist and security consultant, Noor Huda Ismail, who went to a radical Muslim boarding school, Al Mukmin in Solo, central Java. The school’s founder, Abdullah Sungkar, created Jemaah Islamiyah, the international jihadi body whose members have been involved in a number of violent incidents.
Noor’s roommate, Fadlullah Hasanwas, was found guilty and executed for taking part in the Bali bombings in 2002.
He is now a student of jihad, and is trying to understand what makes some people choose the path of terrorism. He has studied with the Irish expert on terrorist psychology, John Horgan, and spent time in Northern Ireland meeting former IRA men. Part of his work is trying to teach people to choose a path other than terrorism, and he discusses this work with frankness and humour.
While people in Jakarta are horrified and depressed by the violence, and find high security difficult to live with, most see the attacks as part of a broader international issue. They see no reason why Jakarta’s reputation internationally should suffer – after all, people still go to New York, London and Madrid after al-Qaeda struck had there.
The more pressing issue remains corruption. Many senior figures you speak to will say graft is a structural issue in Indonesia which needs to be taken on board if the country is to compete internationally. There have been many attempts to combat corruption, and the KPK is only the latest effort, but people have high hopes for its success, especially because the president seemed to back it so strongly.
There have been signs of strains between the KPK and the police in recent months, but it had scored a few successes early on. It looks doomed in its current form because the House of Representatives has to finish discussing the Corruption Court Bill for it to survive. If this does not happen by December, the corruption watchdog will be without mandate.
Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas is a man famed for his integrity in Jakarta. He was involved in setting up the KPK, and works with the international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
“We believe that a correct and clean system may significantly reduce the level of corruption in this country,” he has said.
For him, change has to work at all levels, from making the city’s garbage disposal system function without backhanders right up to the top of government.
What binds decision-makers in Jakarta and the young entrepreneurs and office workers is that they can discuss political intrigue at a very high level, but that few seem to worry about broader issues of stability – which augurs well for the long-term future of this bustling democracy.
So now Jakartans look to see whether the courts can really reveal what is behind the tale of the businessman, the corruption czar and the caddie.