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The human tragedy has been brought home to all of us where a free election, of the type that was hailed worldwide as a triumph for Indonesia only a few months ago, caused mass terror and violence in East Timor. One is tempted to wonder whether a popular revolution in East Timor would have caused as much destruction to human lives.

This week, Army chief Wiranto burst into song to express himself, where mere words without melody would not suffice. The Western press labeled the event as "bizarre". Others who do business in the region know how central the Karoake is to getting things done.. And anybody who has endured guitar accompanied wailings from street entertainers while waiting for the red lights to change at thousands of street intersections throughout the archipelago know it too. Hell, even Blanchard bursts into song from time to time...

When Wiranto reprised the old Morris Albert classic "Feelings", he couldn't have summed up the East Timor crisis better. Because it is feelings, not pragmatism that is leading Indonesia at present. Habibie has lost control; most observers agree with that. But the same observers say Wiranto has control. In that they are far wrong...

The rank and file of the army, like the police and military services of most South East Asian nations, are paid a pittance. The only way to get by is what professional managers would call "benefits and perquisites". For the services, the main form of income comes not from their pay check but from a mass of small time wage boosters such as "tea money", bribery, "look the other way" incentives and subsidised beer. It is the reason why illegal software is still openly on sale throughout South East Asia, and why you can procure sexual services in countries which outlaw prostitution (notably Thailand and Malaysia). It is the reason why you bribe coppers in Indonesia with a 50,000 Rupea note to avoid a long drawn out fine process, and bribe your way into the country with similar. It is why you pay money under the table to grease the wheels of import and export. As you rise through the ranks, your percentage of the tea money increases, making the whole system of corruption even more insidious. No self respecting family man is going to work all his life only to refuse his share of the black money when he finally starts making his fair share of the cake.

The great majority of business people doing business in Indonesia have to deal with ABRI and the mass of business interests of the army. It is impossible to do a reasonable level of business in Indonesia without coming across ABRI companies regularly.

And so for the armed forces in East Timor. After building up a complex Web of "benefits" in East Timor, the rank and file in no way wanted to leave it behind. When the inevitability of the independence vote began to seek in, the militias in tandem with the Indonesian military took their frustrations on the people they were meant to serve.

There is a second factor. The army for a long time in Indonesia has seen themselves as self-appointed keepers of the unity of Indonesia. As long time readers of the forum would know, Indonesia is made up of hundreds of ethnic groups and Indonesians speak more than 200 languages or dialects. Javanese are different culturally from Sumatrans, Sudanese, and Balinese. Some even say that Indonesia is a "historical accident" emerging from Dutch colonization and a colorful post-colonial history. Natural resources vary incredibly, with vast oil and natural minerals reserves, often in provinces and tribal areas a long way from modern Jakarta. Some wonder why the wealth of their home lands has been syphoned off to Jakarta to finance crooked bankers and up market Karaokes. The massive drop in the Rupea and the collapse of the economy brought to the fore these tensions from Aceh in the North throughout Kalimantan (Southern Borneo), to far flung provinces in the East like East Timor. The army fears again, that the succession of East Timor will start off other independence movements throughout the archipelago.

At the same time relatives of soldiers who had died in the struggle to annex East Timor to Indonesia in the 1970's now wonder for what reason their fathers and brothers died.

The Indonesians and Malays in general are an emotional people. The heart rules the head, and this in no way is a bad thing. They are believers, they break into song, they fight for their beliefs.

Wiranto is all of this and more..., despite the pragmatism he brings to bear on his work. And his army is the same. ...The next few weeks will show clearly and painfully that no one is really in control in Indonesia.