Managing Politics and Islam in Indonesia

150 INTRA-ELITE RIVALRYpublic support to Harseno’s report and called for an internal investigation ofHaryanto. The report caused a furore as Muslim interests associated with ICMIclosed ranks to defend the ICMI bureaucrat against corruption allegations, in anopen rift with Habibie’s antagonists at the State Secretariat. 82After the corruption allegations against Haryanto became public, the ABRIfraction and the PDI fraction of parliamentary commission II quickly backedHarseno’s report and demanded Haryanto’s immediate resignation. The twoparliamentary fractions stressed that the source of the leak was not at issue, butthe contents of Harseno’s document were of upmost importance because itcentred on the damaging problem of corruption. 83 Meanwhile, Musliminterests centring on ICMI considered Harseno to have falsified the report, andviewed the vital issue to be the source of the leak, which they believed led to theoffices of Murdiono’s State Secretariat and to Harseno’s office. 84Suharto assigned to Vice-President Try Sutrisno the task of investigating theallegations. After a meeting with Suharto and meetings with Try, Haryantoannounced that he had been reprimanded and requested to undergo a period ofintrospection and to make procedural corrections to the administrative conduct ofhis transport department. After the investigation by the vice-president’s office,Murdiono announced the president’s decision on 26 December that ‘there was novalid proof’ that Haryanto had ‘used state money…for his own needs or gain’. 85Other Muslim members of parliament, Muslim student groups, the radicalorganisation Solidarity Committee for the Islamic World (KISDI) and the ICMIintelligentsia were far from persuaded by Murdiono’s assurances that he had notleaked ‘state secrets’. They were upset by what appeared to be a governmentwhitewash of the case, and what some perceived as Murdiono’s backhandedswipe against the transport minister. They were convinced that Suharto’sinvestigation was not motivated by the desire to establish ‘clean government’,and therefore that it had not sought to investigate those responsible for leakingHarseno’s report to the press. Amien Rais was among the ICMI leaders whoaccused Harseno of falsifying the report, and added his voice to demands for thegovernment to bring to trial whomsoever was found to have leaked the reportcontaining ‘state secrets’. Amien claimed that the offices of Harseno andMurdiono were responsible for the leak aimed at discrediting Habibie’s ministersand ICMI interests. 86Muslim student organisations (including the Muslim University Student’sCommunication Forum, the Islamic University Student’s Association, HMI andthe University Students Solidarity Forum for Anti-Deviationism) held severaldemonstrations outside of parliament and the Attorney General’s office. Theycalled for the Attorney General to investigate the leaking of state secrets and torehabilitate Haryanto’s name. Protests also occurred in Bandung, Surabaya andother cities. The CIDES leader, Eggi Sugjana (an underling of ICMI’s SecretaryGeneral Adi Sasono), organised a student demonstration at Murdiono’s offices atthe State Secretariat in Jakarta, demanding a clarification of earlier accusationsagainst Haryanto.