General Prabowo Retreats

Two days ago I released a piece on General Prabowo's work for the American Pentagon and US intelligence.  This afternoon, I posted a Bahasa Indonesia translation of that piece.

Now, this evening, the press indicates that Prabowo and his campaign have retreated from their insinuation that the armed forces of Indonesia ought to capture me.

It also appears that Prabowo has backed down from my challenge that he file criminal libel charges against me.

Instead, Prabowo is telling Indonesians to stop paying attention to what I've reported about him.

Today, an apparently unnerved Prabowo, speaking "in a high tone" ("dengan nada tinggi") scolded the public: "What's with you?  One foreigner speaks and you get all worked up?  One white-skinned guy, and we have to get agitated?" ("Kenapa sih kamu, kalau satu orang asing bicara, kok kamu ribut sih? Satu orang kulit putih kita harus ribut").

"We are 240 million people.  Just stay calm.  Ask the rakyat [the people/ the masses/ the broad society], don't ask foreigners." ("Kita ini 240 juta orang, tenang saja. Tanya rakyatmu lah, jangan tanya orang asing,"). ("Ditantang Allan Nairn, Prabowo pun menjawab."; "Ditantang Allan Nairn, Ini Tanggapan Prabowo").

If these quotations are accurate, Prabowo should be asked these questions:

If the issue is the rakyat vs. the foreigners, why did Prabowo work for the foreigners?   (Specifically, the US Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] and the US Pentagon).

And if Prabowo cares about the rakyat, why did he and his TNI friends kill so many of them?

Allan Nairn


Link to Bahasa Indonesia translation

Link to "Breaking News: Indonesian Special Forces, Intelligence, in Covert Operation to Influence Election"



NOTE TO READERS: News and Comment is looking for assistance with translating blog postings into other languages, and also with fund raising and distributing the blog content more widely. Those interested please get in touch via the e-mail link below. NOTE TO READERS RE. TRANSLATION: Portions of News and Comment are now available in Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, French, German, Russian and Spanish translation (click preceding links or Profile link above) but translation help is still needed -- particularly with older postings, in these and all other languages. NOTE TO READERS RE. POTENTIAL EVIDENCE: News and Comment is looking for public and private documents and first-hand information that could develop into evidence regarding war crimes or crimes against humanity by officials. Please forward material via the email link below. Email Me