Issue: Defense minister denies plans for coup

March 23, Online

Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro denied allegations that a group of retired generals had secretly supported hard-line groups to overthrow President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“No, there’s no such thing. And such a thing may not happen in Indonesia,” he said on Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera recently reported that the retired generals were backing extremist groups to incite violence to remove the President, whom they deemed too weak.

“We have tools that allow us to monitor developments in the field,” the minister said.

Your comments:

From this, one must conclude that a coup may be under way. Also, SBY is a non-reformist. Was he not elected with a reformist, anticipative and democratic agenda?

Not much has come from all that. In fact, the socioeconomic situation of the country is much worse than before SBY was first elected. Given the strength and influence of the retired generals I would be not at all surprised if they took over power in cahoots with the TNI.

Henry Manoe
Kupang , East Nusa Tenggara

Put these generals in concentration camps for threatening all Indonesians who do have nothing to do with the radicals.

Slim
Saskatchewan, Canada

Please stop being a government in denial and get to work and put these guys in prison for treason.

Rahadi widodo
Jakarta

Please tell us the names of those retired generals, and provide facts

Filippo Giancarlo
Jimbaran, Bali

The Al-Jazeera source is a villager who likely benefited monetarily for their “scoop disclosure”. Anecdotes, gossip and hearsay are not concrete evidence in any part of the world.

All of these retired generals are heroes who fought for Indonesia while western puppets were being spoon-fed US degrees.

All of these generals have the support of the oppressed Indonesian common man.

A political party that embraces neo-liberalism and sells off Indonesian people’s assets has nothing but contempt for the legacy of the Independence Struggle and these heroic generals who built this nation.

Mangkusubroto
Jakarta

The behavior of these retired generals has been suspected following their involvement with nebulous organizations.

There are military officers that have been hostile toward the government and SBY ever since his speech in which he called for the Army to withdraw its commercial interests and fulfill its duty to the State of Indonesia.

Of course these Generals are loathe to withdraw from the Industrial/Military complex that has
provided them with so much power and wealth.

Thus they are keen to destabilize SBY’s government so that they can return to the halcyon days of army supremacy they enjoyed in the nefarious times of the Soeharto regime.

Diggas
Pekalongan, Central Java

These retired generals have shown contempt for our democracy.

They should all be tried. Their biggest resistance comes from the fact that they do not want to lose out on the lucrative business empire the army has amassed.

Aditya
Yogyakarta