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South China Morning Post, Tuesday, October 30, 2001
INDONESIA
Sacked security chief launches youth group 'to save nation'
VAUDINE ENGLAND in Jakarta
[Photo: General Wiranto: powerful backers]
Former armed forces and security chief General Wiranto has founded a moral movement he says aims to help save the nation.
Called the Red and White Youth Defenders - after the colours of the national flag - supporters insist the new group is not another paramilitary organisation but a move to promote human rights, national unity and moral integrity.
General Wiranto was in charge of the military when it supported militias that killed and tortured East Timorese and destroyed much of the province after it voted for independence in 1999.
He was sacked as former president Abdurrahman Wahid's security chief in February last year.
Details of activities planned for the Defenders have yet to be finalised, but organisers hope to establish branches across the country to arrange seminars and sports such as martial arts.
Asked if General Wiranto was subtly announcing his candidacy for president ahead of the 2004 elections, political professor and one of the group's patrons Afan Gaffar said yesterday it was up to the public to decide.
Professor Afan denied that the Defenders was a militia group.
The new group was announced on Sunday during celebrations for Youth Pledge Day.
The symbolism was inescapable as the day marks a turning point in Indonesia's independence struggle against Dutch colonialism on October 28, 1928, when youths pledged to fight for "one nation, one language and one country".
General Wiranto said he wanted to do the same thing now, aiming to promote a spirit of brotherhood and encourage state institutions to work for the public instead of for personal advancement, and to save the nation's morals.
"We hope we will be able to promote youth consciousness for the country's social and political affairs and its unity and integrity through this moral movement. It is also hoped that the movement will warn the political elite to perform its tasks well," General Wiranto said.
He has lined up influential identities for his new group. The chairman is Adhyaksa Dault, also chairman of the Indonesian National Youth Committee. General Wiranto is chairman of the group's board of patrons, which includes Muslim leader Ali Yafie, political observers Ryaas Rasyid and Afan Gaffar, politicians Abdul Madjid and Ahmad Sumargono, and former student leader Hariman Siregar.
Mr Sumargono, an Islamic member of Parliament, also is chairman of the Indonesian Committee for International Islamic Solidarity and is experienced in running militias and training young men to fight.
"The political elite should be wiser, more aspirational and consistent in handling the problems of citizens and the state," General Wiranto said.
He was last in the public eye selling a CD he had made of himself singing love songs. Mr Afan claims the CD made 1.6 billion rupiah (HK$1.2 million), which was donated to the Department of Social Welfare and earmarked for Indonesia's internally displaced persons.
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