detik.com

Silent, his voice unheard and his whereabouts unknown. Even formal powerplay has erased his name. But his presence is still strong. He is Gen. (ret) LB Moerdani. His name is almost always associated with a dramatic event. This time the association is very serious.

This time, the association is with the riots of May 13-14, which was condemned by the rest of the world: Benny (the nickname of Gen. Moerdani) was accused of being the mastermind of the shocking riot, which in the end ousted Suharto out of his presidency.

This accusation was widely talked about after the Tabloid Adil covered it as its headline on the 46th edition, August 19-25 1998. It so happened that the tabloid which is owned by Timmy Habibie (the younger brother of the president Habibie), still left a big question mark concerning this accusation. Simply because there were no concrete evidence.

This accusation by Adil was based on statements from three sources. The first one was from a General close to Lieutenant Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the second one was from a General at Bina Graha, and the third one was from a politician who claimed to have been close to Benny.

The General who was close to Prabowo, as quoted by Adil, was very sure that Benny was the mastermind behind the riot of the past May 13-14. Benny was told to have controlled the actions from Hotel Ria Diani, Cibogo, near the Puncak Bogor area. "Confirm it if you don't believe me," he said. He also added that the inciters of the riot were civilians trained by Benny in the Mount Salak area.

The facts presented by this General, who was a friend of Prabowo, seemed to be very hard to prove. Adil apparently did not want to appear as a judge to vote Benny guilty. They then tried to track down this General, who was supposed to have been ousted out of his position and was jobless at that time. The results? It was as good as no result at all. None of the investigated sources saw nor testified that during the riots Benny was at Hotel Ria Diani.

On the other hand, the General at Bina Graha proposed the fact that ABRI's communications systems were not working during the riots. Hence, interforces coordination went into chaos. Assignment of duties to secure the riots and lootings was not carried out. Why did the communications systems break down? "Because it was jammed by a different source with a stronger frequency," the General was quoted as saying.

The only stronger communications system was supposedly available only to the U.S. embassy in Jakarta. Therefore the U.S. embassy in Jakarta was the keyword. Of course, Benny's closeness to the U.S. intelligence agency CIA was used as an argument. And the only person with access to this high-tech gizmo was none other than Benny.

However, a senior General who was known to be a rival to Benny, when contacted by Detik.com, Tuesday (Aug 8), denied the possibility. "Even if the communications systems were jammed, it's not like ABRI didn't have any other facilities. For example, telephones or handphones for cases of emergency," said the General who preferred to remain anonymous. Or simply use a courier service. Jakarta was empty at that time. From one corner of the city to the other took only a few minutes.

This denial was followed by other facts: the large number of troops present during the riots. The fully-armed troops were seen letting the rioters commit looting. "Just replay the documentations of the private television channels. You'll see that there were a lot of troops, it's just that they didn't do anything, especially around Central, North and West Jakarta," he said.

On the other hand, fact also showed that the Marines forces deployed at the Salemba-Senin are, was actually able to conduct actions to prevent the riots in the usually unsafe area. "Therefore it's clearly shown that the problem was not with the communications systems, but with the communicated orders," he added.

"I don't intend to defend Benny, but accusing him of jamming the communications systems is not very logical," he said. But he also added that Benny had always been known to be a brilliant General who works very carefully and systematically. "Therefore if you're accusing him as the mastermind of the riots, you have to provide a strong evident," he added.

The politician close to Benny said that the riots of May 13-14 could not have been masterminded by "a new player" like Prabowo. "They had that level of experience," he said as quoted by Adil. He then pointed to the case of the assault on the DPP PDI office by "the new players" which ended in chaos. This politician was sure that the past riots was carried out by a senior general within the circle of power.

What can we conclude from the three sources of Adil? Apparently, nobody can readily accuse Benny to be the mastermind behind the riots. Adil still maintained a degree of fairness and did not bluntly accept the facts presented nor the statements of the three said sources, to punish Benny with guilt. A statement made by a tycoon friend of Benny, Sofyan Wanandi, quoted by Adil, could possibly help speed up the investigation process to find the mastermind behind the riots. "That's why I proposed that everything has to be revealed. So that we know. And get it over with. The mastermind has to be brought to justice," he said.