The Nasty Party

So it's getting dirty already. Disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto, who had to settle for the running for the number two job after Indonesia refused to vote for him in large enough numbers, is starting to show his true colours. Aside from a wish list of unimaginable expense (lots of money for all those those poor people who grow the rice he eats and presumably clean out the stables inhabited by his 90 horses), he is playing the bash-the-foreigners card. Aside from his thinly-veiled attacks on the ethnic Chinese in his TV ads (also foreigners in his eyes - he can't stand them either), he and Mega have made attacks on the influence of foreign culture - which they (actually Mega doesn't say much) say is responsible for Indonesians' ignorance of traditional culture etc etc.

So if he hates foreigners so much, two questions spring to mind. Why are he and Mega using US consulting firm Rob Allyn to boost their image (although their team issued embarrassed half denials to detik.com); and why (yet alone how) does he have US$7,572,916 to his name, according to the report he made of his assets to the General Election Commission? Oh, and Rp1,579,376,223,359 of assets in Indonesian currency, reports Kompas (30/5/09). That should come in handy if he either wants to pay off the voters or buy troublemakers if the vote doesn't go his way.

In other dirty tricks: because of his appalling human rights record, Prabowo can't even get a US visa, and the civilized world presumably views the prospect of his election with horror. Prabowo is absolutely desperate for foreign politicians to attack him so he can portray himself as a victim. Sensibly nobody is falling into that trap, so there's nothing for it but to invent news of intervention by the wily and perfidious whiteys. Hence the story in detik.com today in which Manullang, a former director of Indonesian Military Intelligence (the organization that murdered Indonesian human rights activist Munir), claims that US intelligence are actively trying to ensure a victory for incumbent President SBY. If the foreigners like him, he must be BAAAAAD, goes the theory.

Given Prabowo's past - he has been accused of attempting a coup d'etat in 1998 as well as being behind the anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta earlier the same year, and has admitted kidnapping democracy activists (who were on the same side as Megawati at the time...) - if he is already playing dirty, what will he do if he loses? Or does he hope to gain power without ever gaining a parliamentary majority as another former military man did in 1933?