Gianto, as his friends would call him, served as the Aide-de-camp (Adc) to the late Gen. Slamet Riyadi, a hero of the fight against the Dutch in the Revolutionary War of 1945. He was present next to the general when he was shot by Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS) rebel group members in Maluku in 1946 during the uprising there.

Gianto was one of those who helped establish the Army’s Special Forces of RPKAD under Djoni Djambek, when he assisted Col. Kawilarang of the Siliwangi Division. Afterward, Gianto was a very active member of Pak Ali’s Unit Operasi Khusus (special operations unit) of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), which took part in the dialogue with the Malaysians in the process to end the confrontation with the Southeast Asian neighbor.

Afterward, Gianto followed Pak Ali’s career, serving as his assistant when the latter served as a personal assistant of president Soeharto (1967-1974), deputy head of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (BAKIN) in 1974-1978, and information minister (1978-1983).

I call Gianto a quiet hero because he was always behind a big figure/leader — assisting, protecting, making every preparation for the leader, giving advice, but never taking credit for the leader’s success.

During the time of Konfrontasi, Gianto worked closely with Gen. Benny Moerdani, Gen. AR Rachman, Des Alwi and other figures of former rebel group PRRI-Permesta under Gen. Ali Moertopo, to start networking and then negotiating with Tun Razak, then deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Malaysia. The intensive dialogue brought Gianto close to Tan Sri Ghazali, then permanent secretary of the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, and the two became good friends.

As history has shown, the ending Konfrontasi was one of the achievements of Pak Ali, and Gianto was a very effective assistant to the general.

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