Shaping the world, p.1
Shaping the World, page 1
Shaping the World
Celebrations: Volume 3
By Peter Carlevaro
Table of Contents
Title Page
Foreword
1st
2nd
3rd
Lastly
Foreword
Literature is a wonderful journey of the mind and imagination. Its enjoyment lies in the path of the journey and not in the destination itself. The reader gains many benefits through this journey.
Reading a literary book cultivates the spiritual powers of man, memory, perception, imagination and sharpens his mind and judgment.
The book contributes to his education because he spreads the knowledge, the ideas, the spiritual heritage of the past.
Reading enriches our vocabulary and increases our mental function.
Ignorance is fought and indestructible values are projected. It gives impetus to the spiritual cultivation of the people and to the exchange of ideas.
People who read are more civilized and have great social acceptance. When you do not have knowledge, you do not have the right to have an opinion. (Plato).
New ways of thinking are created and new ways are charted.
Through reading literary books, young children learn to recognize and accept their feelings and to unlock them.
Forms moral characters with the standards it promotes and the moral principles.
It is enjoyable to read literary books. It entertains the person, keeps him company in pleasant and difficult moments of his life, transports him to other countries, times and relieves him of stress.
It cultivates the psychic powers of the individual, the will, the optimism, the hope, the love, the peaceful coexistence, the altruism.
The virtues that are transmitted to man contribute to the progress of society as a whole and to the "flourishing" of social relations.
It raises the cultural level of society and contributes to its prosperity. On the contrary, its absence leads to cultural backwardness and delay.
The value of the literary book in man is maximum because it encourages, prevents, teaches and guides.
Writing a book is like giving birth to a child. So, first of all, I enjoy the joy of creation. Then, with its publication, I am happy because some people who will read it, will share with me everything that my imagination or the experiences of my life gave birth to.
1st
1.
The door opened with the two senior officers storming in with General Wirawan glaring at the two junior offices before bellowing ‘you two can wait outside!’
The two BAKIN officers glanced at Rundi who slightly nodded and watched them solute before leaving the office. Once the door closed General Wirawan crashed heavily into one of the chairs followed by the Admiral Nugroho.
‘Are you abreast of the situation? demanded General Wirawan.
‘Of cause I am! Now what are you two doing here?’
Admiral Nugroho ignored the question and asked using a low cautious voice. ‘Is this office securer? When was it last scanned for bugs?’
‘This morning!’
The Admiral continued ‘did you know the Marine 2nd Infantry Brigade based in Cilandak has been BKO-ed to KODAM JAYA! This includes all combat support personnel, artillery and cavalry.’
‘No. I haven’t bothered to monitor the Marines as I know they wouldn’t be involved in the current situation’ declared General Rundi.
General Wirawan cursed. ‘Tell him!’
He leant forward in his chair then the admiral continued ‘the Marines based in Cilandak have been involved in a plot engineered by Prabowo and his faction. Prabowo realized long ago that the Marines were the only military unit that was able to contest his Kopassus in combat. He had to neutralise them. Prabowo knew he couldn’t influence the Marines from moving from their neutral position. Prabowo decided that he should at least tie up all the available Marine Units in the Jakarta area. This would allow his troops to be given a free hand to achieve their objective of securing power from the soon to be defunct Suharto Government. He also happens to be good friends with Major General Soeharto, the Marine Corps Commandant and to make his manipulation even easier the commander of Kodam Jaya is another old Prabowo friend Major General Samsoeddin. Samsoeddin cleverly ordered the Marines to guard a number of lesser important locations far away from the areas being destroyed by those rampaging rioters. This has placed General Prabowo only a few hours from taking control and this will most likely happen after Suharto resigns the presidency!’
General Wirawan continued ‘I have just learnt General Wiranto has begun organising his move. What he doesn’t realise is that Prabowo is well ahead of him and when he learns of his preparations will change his excuse for seizing the government from saving the nation from the rioters to stopping a power hunger General Wiranto from taking over the government. But you how all this don’t you?’
‘Some, not all’ replied Rundi knowing that he couldn’t afford to lie to these two men as trust was more important than any other consideration.
‘WHAT!’ yelled General Wirawan.
Reaching over Admiral Nugroho gripped the General’s arm silencing him before asking ‘How long before Suharto resigns?’
‘Tomorrow he already has his speechwriter preparing his resignation speech. Vice President Habibie will be sworn into the office a few minutes later. General Prabowo he will make his move on Habibie the moment he is sworn in, so will General Wiranto with the loser following up with his planned coup d’état. My best guess is Prabowo will try and bully the new president who will either crumble becoming Prabowo’s puppet or he will jump into Wiranto’s lap and, it should all happen on Friday.’
‘Now tell me you have a plan Rundi!’ demanded General Wirawan who was showing a mixture of fear and anger at being placed in such an awkward situation.
Rundi could see both men were more than worried he smiled reassuringly before replying. ‘Our first step was always to get rid of Suharto and his cohorts. Tomorrow will achieve most of that and, within a few days a major power broker will be removed once and for all, Prabowo or Wiranto. Once the issue is decided I will begin working on the other. Now Gentlemen it would be best if you leave this to me and return to your posts.’
General Wirawan was about to explode with anger at being so simply dismissed as if he was a subordinate when once again he felt the Admiral hand grip his arm silencing the angry soldier. ‘Rundi if it comes to a choice bring down Prabowo. If he’s still in command of KOSTRAD (Commander of the Army Strategic Reserve Command) by the end of the weekend, it’s over. And I mean it’s all over and it’s everyman for himself. Is that clear’ proclaimed Admiral Nugroho.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Office 16th Floor Deutsche Bank Building, Jakarta, August 1998.
Stuart called in late in the afternoon to see his journalist friend Allan Davidson knowing he should have finished sending his stories to Australia for the day and would be about to go home. Today Stuart wanted to have a quiet chat with him and the best way to ensure that would happen was to bring along a few beers which he was carrying in a freezer bag.
Stuart stood in the office doorway and watched Allan log off his computer then swivel round on his office chair grinning broadly when he saw Stuart staring at him while eyeing the freezer bag he held in his right hand. ‘Better close the door, before all those other thirsty bastards come charging in!’
Stuart obliged by quickly closing the door then sat in the closest chair which allowed him to pull out two bottles.
Several seconds after tasting the cold beer Allan asked ‘you’re not wanting to go on the road again, are you?’
Stuart smiled before he replied ‘not at the moment. I just wanted a quiet chat about what has been happening around here over the last few months. I want to see if your interpretation of the situation is the same as mine.’
Allan loved talking shop and having a keen listener who was supplying the beer was even better. ‘That was exciting stuff we were doing back in May. By the way how’s that little girl of yours, she was pretty nice and smart to!’
Stuart laughed, ‘don’t you ever think about anything else?’
‘Hey it’s the end of the day, you know that time when you only want to think about beer and women. Stop avoiding the subject is she still with you?’
Stuart didn’t want to waste any more time on the subject so he feed him a line which he knew would kill the subject. ‘Since all the recent trouble she has been living over at my place. Damn we’ll probably be making babies next year!’
‘Really?’
Stuart quickly changed the subject and asked ‘you must be enjoying the lifting of the press restrictions?’
‘Yeah sure have! I even asked Habibie about it when I was in the media scrum following him during his tour of the burnt out parts of the city, between listening to his guide who was describing what had happened at each location. You could see the impact of the situation hit him hard, right between the eyes. I think that’s when he woke up to what being president is really all about. You could tell it rattled him just a little.
The next day the politics began when he met the Assembly leaders, now everyone is waiting for the special session of the assembly to take place. That should be interesting! I recon they’ll be blaming Suharto for everything, from the failing economy to dandruff and the opposition parties will be linking Habibie and Suharto at every opportunity. You can see the little bastard won’t survive to the mid-1999 elections and, everyone in Indo nesia except for him seems to know it.’
Stuart brushed his shoulder ‘and I thought my new shampoo was causing my dandruff. Now you’re telling me it’s Suharto. Damn the sneaky bastard!’ only to hear Allan give a short laugh. ‘By the way what do you make of those investigations into Suharto?’ asked Stuart.
Allan leaned back in his chair and laughed. ‘He’s bullet proof! Did you hear about Justice Minister Muladi, he said he was ready to impose travel bans on Suharto and his family? Did he? Of cause he didn’t, that was just for domestic consumption. Now look at what the Attorney General, Soedjono Atmonegoro did? Rumour has it he presented the president with an accurate report on Suharto and his business cohorts which covered their wide spread corruption in the Yayasan (Foundations). Five hours latter President Habibie sacked him. Could you believe the man was that naive to actually tell the truth?’
Stuart laughed, ‘yeah telling the truth is always a risky business, when a comfortable lie is usually more palatable to everyone.’
Allan returned him questioning grin, ‘Is there something you would like to get off your chest?’
Stuart lean back in his chair with a half-smile before he shook his head ‘what are the opposition parties going to do?’
Allan took another beer followed by a long drink before answering. ‘Just what you are seeing now demonstrations and more demonstrations all demanding political change followed by the formation of new political parties. Damn there seems to be a new one every day. Followed by more people declaring they will be running for president. But what really unites them all is they all want to get rid of President Habibie thus removing the last major link to Suharto.
I was in Yogya recently and saw half a million people marching, no demonstrating against the current government. I don’t mind telling you when you see that many people at a political rally, well it’s just a little scary if you consider what could happen if it suddenly gets out of hand. It has now reached a scale that any protest under a hundred thousand people isn’t worth mentioning.
Even the military are having their problems. General Wiranto has replaced the heads of all the armed services and police as well as a number of senior officers who were loyal to General Prabowo who by the way has just been stripped of all military commands and is one step from being kicked out of the army. It looks like some serious restructuring is going on and if that means Prabowo and his supporters are removed, then that can only be a good thing. Wouldn’t you agree?’
Stuart knew a lot of people in Canberra were privately very concerned about Prabowo’s continuing climb up the ladder which would culmination with his inevitable claim to the presidency. He could easily imagine the cheering that would have taken place when Canberra heard of his removal from all his commands.
‘So apart from the protests, riots and ditching the president what other stories are you going to print?’ asked Stuart.
Allan once more leaned back in his chair like an old professor preparing to lecture a student by opening his hidden vault of wisdom. ‘Timor is my tip for the next major story. Already you can see the international pressure growing. It has already prompted President Habibie to make some moves towards independence. While the Military have made it clear they have no intension of seeing East Timor slip away. When the proverbial hits the fan that one is going to make a real mess! The other story is the banks. I suspect some real shonky banking practices are going to be splashed all over the front pages, combined with more bank mergers. Damn! I’m just relieved I keep my money under my matris. In this place that’s a lot safer than a bank!’ Stuart smiled knowing he was right.
Once the beer ran out Stuart left the ABC office and decided to go home after surviving a severe arm-twisting from Allan to go to the Zigolini’s bar across the road.
DRIVING THROUGH THE heavy traffic gave Stuart time to reflect on what was happening with his team, Elya and Maja had moved into a townhouse with Noni following a few days later. The previous tenants had fled the country and had not renewed their lease, which was the same story with the other dwellings in the street. Li was still living with Stuart but operationally he knew that was a mistake, but he couldn’t move her out until another townhouse became available further down the road from Elya’s, which was still three weeks away.
The only mitigating factor being everyone in Indonesia was too distracted by the historic events happening around them to even think about looking for spies and as far as he was concerned that was fine buy him.
Stuart opened the front door and could smell something good. After he climbed to the top of the stares he found Heru in the kitchen with Li sitting on the floor in the lounge room surrounded with copies of the reports that had been sent Canberra.
‘Hey boss did those Rugby tapes come in?’ Came the voice from the kitchen.
Stuart was more interested in what Li was doing put down his brief case and yelled back, ‘Not yet! But I got an e-mail saying they’re in the post.’
On hearing his voice Li looked up. ‘Hi Stuart.’
Stuart squatted down next to her and said softly. ‘This isn’t exactly operational procedure having these reports scattered all over the floor.’
‘I know but I’m trying to understand these financial reports that Abdul has been sending us. According to these records we should have a complete picture of where all the government expenditure is going but I can’t find one rupiah that has gone to the navy’s refitting program. Now look at this, according to Noni all the outstanding accounts for spare parts for the air force have been paid but nothing is showing here. It doesn’t make sense.’
Stuart looked at one of the reports ‘Hmm I can confirm this one. The air force has paid all their invoices and, has placed more orders with letters of credit. Two of the companies I represent phoned me, wanting to know what I did to get the government to pay their account when there in the middle of a financial crisis.’
‘What did you tell them?
‘Bullshit of cause! I was surprised just like everyone else. It shouldn’t have happened but it did’ replied Stuart.
Feeling a nudge on the shoulder Stuart noticed Heru handing him a beer. ‘Dinners ready.’
Stuart sat at the dining room table and said little as he mulled over in his mind what Li had told him. There was no explanation. It didn’t make sense .
‘Li in about three weeks I should have you in your new safe house. Once you have settled in I want you to have a meeting with Abdul. Ask him to explain how they are paying for everything. If he doesn’t know tell him not to start some witch-hunt and to keep his ears open and, if he hears anything to pass it on. Just make it very clear to him if he starts asking questions, he’ll get caught.’
Li nodded indicated she thought it was a wise move before replying, ‘he should have another months accounts finished by then.’
2nd
2.
At 6.45 pm Li heard a knock on the door prompting her to the door’s spy hole where she saw Abdul standing impatiently. She opened the door and was almost trampled as Abdul stormed into the room, allowing Li to close the door faster than she expected. ‘Relax! Take a drink from the bar fridge.’
Abdul grabbed a beer and had it half skulled before Li reached him prompting Li to grab another and place it on the table to prevent any further interruptions. ‘Please, take a seat.’
Abdul sat heavily in the chair snapping out, ‘do you think I was followed?’
Li returned him a reassuring smile ‘you weren’t! I had people watching. If you were compromised you would have been sent somewhere else.’
Abdul smiled with relief ‘what is so important that you needed to see me face to face?’
Li once again returned him a reassuring smile to give him a little more time to calm down before getting down to business. ‘We are very pleased with the information you have been supplying our organisation. Have you found Maja of any assistance?’
‘She is watching my back like a hawk. Already she has saved me a few times. I can tell you having someone watching out for me in these troublesome times is very reassuring’ replied Abdul who was somewhat surprised he had actually said the last part.
