[News] Leaked: CIA Front Preparing Color Revolution in Indonesia

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mintpressnews.com
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/leak-cia-ned-color-revolution-coup-indonesia/285617/>
Leaked: CIA Front Preparing Color Revolution in Indonesia
Kit Klarenberg <https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/kit-klarenberg/> -
September 6, 2023
------------------------------

Documents passed anonymously to *MintPress News* reveal the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA front, is laying the
foundations for a color revolution in Indonesia.

In February 2024, citizens will elect their President, Vice President, and
both legislative chambers. Current maverick leader Joko Widodo, widely
beloved by Indonesians, is ineligible for a third term, and NED is
preparing to seize power in the wake of his departure. This operation is
conducted despite the leaks indicating Jakarta’s foremost intelligence
agency has expressly warned U.S. officials to stay put.

The paper trail is a stunning insight into how NED operates behind the
scenes, from which obvious inferences can be drawn about its activities
elsewhere, past and present. By the organization’s own reckoning
<https://www.ned.org/about/>, it operates in over 100 countries and
disperses in excess of 2,000 grants every year. In Indonesia, these sums
have helped extend the Endowment’s tendrils into various NGOs, civil
society groups, and, most crucially, political parties and candidates
across the ideological spectrum.

This broad spread bet goes some way to ensuring U.S. assets, one way or
another, will emerge victorious next February. However, a veritable army of
NED operatives on the ground is also primed to challenge, if not overturn,
the results should the wrong people win. Personal grants – in other words,
bribes – from the Endowment have already secretly been distributed to
Indonesians for staging anti-government protests.

What skullduggery NED has in store for election day isn’t certain, although
sparks are assured to fly. At the very least, these documents amply
reinforce what Endowment cofounder Allen Weinstein openly admitted
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/>
in 1991:

A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

‘The Jokowi Effect’

Joko Widodo – popularly known as Jokowi – is something of a rockstar. The
first Indonesian leader not drawn from the country’s established political
or military elite since its hard-won independence from the Dutch in 1949,
he was born and raised in a riverside slum in Surakarta. From there, he
fought to become mayor of his hometown in 2005, then governor of Jakarta in
2012, then President two years later.

Every step of the way, Widodo has battled bureaucracy and corruption
while pursuing
programs
<https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/12/22/a-report-card-jakarta-s-healthcare-program.html>
to deliver universal healthcare, economic growth, radical infrastructure
development, and material improvements to the lives of average citizens.
Such is his domestic popularity that analysts routinely speak
<http://time.com/54865/indonesia-elections-jokowi-joko-widodo/> of the
“Jokowi Effect.” After the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle named
him their presidential candidate in 2014, their vote share leaped
<http://news.detik.com/read/2014/03/03/111623/2513327/10/charta-politika-deklarasi-jokowi-sebelum-pileg-pdip-bisa-tembus-30>
30% in that year’s legislative election.

Widodo’s candidacy also reportedly stimulated
<https://www.viva.co.id/arsip/488652-jokowi-capres-indeks-saham-melesat>
Indonesia’s stock market and Rupiah currency due to his sparkling political
and economic record. One might think burnishing the country’s finances to
such a degree through sheer force of personality would make him an ideal
leader from Washington’s perspective. Yet, the President has also
prioritized
<https://thediplomat.com/2015/01/the-trouble-with-indonesias-foreign-policy-priorities-under-jokowi/>
“protecting Indonesia’s sovereignty” and limiting overseas influence in
Jakarta. Moreover, he pursues an intensely independent foreign policy, much
to the U.S. Empire’s chagrin.

Widodo has encouraged
<https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/07/jokowi-calls-unity-reconciliation-palestine.html>
leaders of Muslim states to reconcile and pushed for Palestinian
independence. His Foreign Minister visits Palestine but refuses to
establish diplomatic relations with Israel. He has also distributed sizable
aid
<https://web.archive.org/web/20170922080708/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-irans-supreme-leader-condemns-myanmar-violence-49785622>
to oppressed Muslims abroad. Most egregiously, since Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, he flew
<https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/7/5/indonesian-leaders-russia-ukraine-trip-divides-critics-at-home>
to both countries and urged their leaders to seek peace. When Jakarta
hosted the G20 Summit that year, he invited not only Zelensky but Putin to
attend despite fierce Western criticism
<https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-vladimir-putin-stays-invited-to-g20-summit-indonesian-ambassador-says/>
.
[image: Joko Widodo]Joko Widodo addresses an adoring crowd at a campaign
rally in Jakarta on April 13, 2019. Dita Alangkara | AP

In many ways, Widodo emulates the rule of Sukarno, Indonesia’s first
President, from 1945 to 1967. His policies, domestically and
internationally, were explicitly anti-imperialist. At home, he prevented
Western exploitation
<https://monthlyreview.org/2022/12/01/mining-capital-and-the-indonesian-state/>
of his country’s vast resource wealth while maintaining cordial relations
with both East and West and personally championing
<http://cns.miis.edu/nam/index.php/site/showProfile/51> the Non-Aligned
Movement, members of which eschewed both power blocs to pursue an
independent path.

Sukarno’s bold refusal to bow to imperial interests made him a thoroughly
marked man. In 1965, he was ousted in a blood-spattered military coup
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/slaughter-in-indonesia-britains-secret-propaganda-war>
sponsored by the CIA and MI6, ushering in 30 years of an iron-fisted
military dictatorship led by General Suharto. Over one million people were
killed through politically motivated massacres, executions, arbitrary
imprisonment, and savage repression. Even the CIA describes
<https://asiasociety.org/filmmaker-chris-hilton-anti-communist-purges-indonesia-1965-66>
his purge of leftists as “one of the worst mass murders of the 20th
century.”

Widodo is now preparing to leave office, his constitutionally-mandated
terms over, and personal approval ratings at all-time highs
<https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesian-president-jokowis-approval-rating-all-time-high-poll-2023-01-22/>.
His departure creates a clean political slate, which NED is eager to fill.
Mercifully, a repeat of the intelligence agency-orchestrated slaughter that
brought Suharto to power decades ago appears unlikely. But the leaked
documents obtained by *MintPress News *make clear the U.S. Empire is
preparing to pull off another coup in Jakarta under the aegis of “democracy
promotion.”

This has been NED’s raison d’etre since inception, in 1983. The
organization was explicitly founded
<https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/08/cias-hidden-hand-in-democracy-groups/>
by senior CIA spooks and U.S. foreign policy apparatchiks to serve as a
public mechanism for the Agency’s traditional clandestine support for
opposition groups, activist movements and media outlets overseas, which
engage in propaganda and political activism to disrupt, destabilize, and
displace ‘enemy’ regimes.

NED’s malign meddling over the years is too lengthy to list here. But
recently, this has included sponsoring a failed uprising
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-point-to-us-hand-in-cuba-protests/277987/>
in Cuba, funneling money
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/hong-kong-protest-united-states-destabilize-china/261712/>
to separatist protesters in Hong Kong, and attempting to topple
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-writes-belarus-familiar-regime-change-script/278700/>
the Belarusian government. Having floundered in these insurrectionary
adventures is evidently no deterrent to trying again in Indonesia now.
‘Personal Branding Development’

The leaked files are weekly briefings dispatched from the Indonesian office
of the International Republican Institute (IRI) back to headquarters in
Washington during June, July and August 2023. IRI is a core component of
NED, which typically works
<https://www.nsf-journal.hr/online-issues/case-studies/id/1300>with
another, the National Democratic Institute, on regime change operations
abroad. The pair are innately linked to their respective namesake political
parties at home.

These briefings provide updates on administrative issues, local political
developments, staff activities, press clippings, and IRI’s progress on
fulfilling the objectives of its NED grant in Indonesia “to improve the
capacity of emerging political party leaders to assume leadership positions
within the parties and act as agents of change in support of increased
internal party democracy, transparency, and responsiveness to citizens.”
The last available Endowment grant records
<https://www.ned.org/region/asia/indonesia-2021/>, from 2022, show the
Institute was given $700,000 for this.

Every week, IRI reported its “outreach” to “emerging leaders” in the
country – graduates of NED training programs, now prominent members of
dozens of political parties, and local NGOs and civil society
organizations. Many are running as candidates in 2024, having been taught
campaigning and voter engagement strategies and to challenge results by the
Endowment.

One of IRI’s “emerging leaders” was recorded as “carrying out internal
party reform in his party” and “always appearing” prominently in its ranks.
He was recently trained in launching legal disputes over the forthcoming
election’s results, which “resulted in his being trusted as a candidate” by
the party.
[image: Emerging Leaders Academy]Atlantic Council Fellow Parker Novak
<https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/parker-novak/> , second from right,
poses with participants of an Emerging Leaders Academy event in 2022

Another boasted to his IRI handlers that he “continues to socialize himself
to the public regarding his candidacy either in person or through social
media” and had recently appeared on popular radio and T.V. shows. He
credited training provided by the NED-funded Association for Election and
Democracy (Perludem) for “his personal branding development in politics”
and ability to “serve as public speaker and engage with media.”

Perludem publishes regular
<https://anfrel.org/perludem-publishes-regional-elections-and-democracy-journal/>
US AID-financed journals, which “provide recommendations and references for
improving electoral governance and democratic and political processes in
the Asia and Pacific region.” It also convenes regular Emerging Leader
Academy (ELA) events, where the individuals named in the IRI documents are
groomed and learn “message development,” among other electioneering skills.

One graduate told IRI she had “started to share and disseminate information
regarding her plans to run as a legislative candidate” and was “now
increasingly active on social media.” With “tools she received from ELA,
she hopes to attract more young voters, especially first-time voters.”
Another was reported to have “again strengthened his role in the party’s
internal body” and be personally “training prospective witnesses at polling
stations” to monitor proceedings on election day.

Right down to the school level, youth political engagement was of evident
significance to IRI and its cadre of political operatives. Accordingly, on
July 1, Perdulem hosted an event, *Make Election Great Again!*, where
attendees were taught the fine art of “identifying the strategic role of
students in the 2024 election.”

IRI’s vote-meddling capabilities were significantly enhanced on July 12,
when its operatives attended an event hosted by the Center for Strategic
and International Studies and Google. A panel featured two opposition
politicians, journalists, and researchers, who warned “dis/misinformation”
could affect the 2024 election and, terrifyingly, result in a similar
figure to Widodo becoming President. A local polling expert presented data
from a recent survey conducted by his firm on how trust in political
parties impacts voter preferences.
‘Achieved Milestone’

One of the leak’s most tantalizing excerpts is in a briefing note from June
28 this year. It records how IRI representatives met with high-ranking
members of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, including its Political Officer,
Ted Meinhover. He “conveyed U.S. concerns” about the 2024 elections, in
particular how Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto’s “electability” had
“increased dramatically,” meaning he “stood the highest according to the
polls.” Meanwhile, former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s ratings were
“on the decline.”

Meinhover lamented how Indonesian law restricts parties with less than 20%
of seats in parliament from fielding Presidential candidates. If that
“threshold” were removed, “there will be more candidates in the election,
and the U.S. will have more options,” he declared. Still, Washington “needs
to maintain friendly relations with all parties to safeguard U.S. interests
in Indonesia, no matter how the election plays out.”

Meinhover added the Embassy had “been active in outreaching” leaders of the
local Labor party and Indonesia’s Trade Union Confederation “to know about
their plans to protest” a law on job creation recently signed
<https://news.detik.com/berita/d-6136245/jokowi-resmi-teken-uu-ppp-nomor-132022>
by Widodo. Fearing the legislation will “dampen foreign investor
enthusiasm” in the country, “the U.S. firmly supports activities opposed to
it.”

Accordingly, the Embassy secretly suggested to Labor party chiefs they
could exploit “the opportunity” of Indonesia’s Independence Day on August
17 “to launch protests” against the job creation law and Meinhover’s hated
“Presidential Threshold.” Strikingly, a U.S. diplomatic apparatchik present
mentioned Jakarta’s State Intelligence Agency (BIN) had “recently warned”
the Embassy “not to interfere” in the 2024 elections.

Meinhover said this had motivated the Embassy to “continuously support”
IRI’s cloak-and-dagger activities to “further implement U.S. policies while
avoiding Indonesian regulations.” So it was, a July 8 – 14 briefing noted,
the Institute contacted Labor party leaders and a welter of Indonesian
labor organizations – to which IRI “continuously provide small grants” –
and discussed “plans to organize protests” against the job creation and
Presidential threshold laws “in late July or early August.”
A protest against a Job Creation Act in Bandung turns violent. Documents
reveal US Embassy staff had a direct hand in fomenting labor protests in a
bid to undermine Indonesia’s president. Dimas Rachmatsyah | AP

Those protests went ahead
<https://en.tempo.co/read/1757714/labor-party-to-stage-protest-against-job-creation-act-and-presidential-threshold-today>
on August 9 at Jakarta’s Constitutional Court and State Palace. Local media
coverage of the events was duly recorded in an IRI briefing, which also
noted that the Institute “provided a third grant” of 1,000,000 Rupiah to
the Pandeglang Labor party’s executive chair for the effort. They
reportedly “appreciated IRI’s support for their activities.” The briefing
added, “The protests went well and [were] brought to a successful close.”

A week later, Institute staffers again provided “support” to the Labor
Party’s Pandeglang chapter to “successfully” protest against the two laws.
The executive chair received a further personal grant of 5,000,000 Rupiahs
“for this achieved milestone.” While this amounts to $330, it can hardly be
considered an insubstantial sum in local terms, given that 50% of
Indonesia’s population earns less
<https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-indonesia/> than $800
monthly.

Other briefings indicate several Indonesian organizations and individuals
receive direct payments from IRI for achieving specific “milestones,”
Perludem among them. In a perverse irony, the February 2021 edition
<https://anfrel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The-Asia-Pacific-Journal-of-Election-and-Democracy-Volume-I-Number-01.pdf>
of the organization’s journal featured essays on topics including
“political financing and its impact on the quality of democracy,”; “the
urgency of preventing illicit political party fundraising,”; “a
disproportionately unequal playing field: challenges to and prospects for
campaign finance law”; and “accountability and transparency of political
party financing” across Asia Pacific.

Eighteen months later, Perludem launched an app
<https://anfrel.org/perludem-international-idea-to-launch-electoral-redistricting-app/>
helping Indonesians “understand how electoral boundaries are drawn” and
allowing users to “create their own versions of boundary delimitation or
drawing/redrawing of electoral districts as they deem appropriate by
universal standards and principles.” Who or what funded this seditious
venture wasn’t stated.
‘Budgets are Tight’

One can only imagine the righteous furor that would erupt if documents
revealing Chinese or Russian government agents, including Embassy staff,
were secretly grooming politicians and civil society actors in foreign
countries while covertly encouraging and bankrolling the activism of
opposition parties and trade unions in conscious, deliberate contravention
of national “regulations.” However, such activity is par for the course for
U.S. diplomatic missions everywhere – and indeed, NED.

It’s also worth noting that the Endowment’s outlay in Indonesia is
relatively modest. One weekly briefing even mentions how budgets “across
IRI’s three projects” in the country “are tight for the foreseeable
future.” The Institute’s Indonesian party leader training operation aside,
the nature of the two other ventures is unclear from the leaked documents.
But, according to figures published on NED’s website, the organization
spends less than $2 million in Jakarta annually.

Usually, the sums involved are vastly higher. For example, over the 12
months leading up to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution, NED pumped around
<https://web.archive.org/web/20140226100532/http://www.ned.org/fa/where-we-work/eurasia/ukraine%5C>
$20 million into the country. Still, Western journalists, politicians, and
pundits aggressively rubbished
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/technology/china-russia-propaganda.html?smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&smtyp=cur>
all suggestions that insurrectionary upheaval was anything other than an
expression of popular will
<https://www.change.org/p/to-journalists-commentators-and-analysts-writing-on-the-ukrainian-protest-movement-euromaidan-kyiv-s-euromaidan-is-a-liberationist-and-not-extremist-mass-action-of-civic-disobedience>,
resulting from surging yearning for liberalism and democracy by the
overwhelming majority of citizens. They have done so ever since.

This is despite contemporary polls never showing
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/12/who-are-the-protesters-in-ukraine/>
majority Ukrainian support for Maidan, or E.U. and NATO membership;
President Viktor Yanukovych remaining the most popular politician in the
country until his last day in office; every actor
<https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-coup-how-cia-front-laid>
at the forefront of the protests, including the individual who started
them, receiving NED or USAID funding; leaders of U.S.-financed
organizations in the country openly declaring
<https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/in-ukraine-how-little-has-changed-even-after-orange-revolution>
their desire to overthrow the government in the years prior; the Maidan
demonstrations being riddled
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/wusa.12457> with hardcore
nationalists.

One might still argue many Maidan protesters *were *animated by legitimate
grievances. Yet, the leaked trove raises serious questions about the
“agency” of anyone in direct or even indirect receipt of NED funding. The
papers amply show individuals and organizations on the ground anywhere can
be stirred to activism at the local U.S. Embassy or Endowment chapter’s
express behest at any time in return for even a small “grant.”

It is wholly inconceivable Indonesian labor groups would otherwise have
protested Widodo’s job creation law or restrictions on how many
Presidential candidates can run were it not for the former potentially
harming Western investors and financial interests in Jakarta and the latter
limiting Washington’s choice of puppets in the country. How many other
anti-government agitators around the world, be they protesters, trade
unionists, journalists, or otherwise, are similarly acting to “achieve
milestones” agreed in secret with NED is anyone’s guess.

>From Washington’s perspective, the importance of ensuring a pliant
government is installed in Indonesia cannot be understated. With U.S.
military chiefs openly
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/02/us-general-gut-feeling-war-china-sparks-alarm-predictions>discussing
war with China in the very near future, the region must be populated with
client states that can aid and abet that world-threatening effort. Similar
initiatives are undoubtedly underway across the entire Asia Pacific. As
such, it has never been more critical that NED’s activities everywhere are
scrutinized, if not outright banned.

Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News

*Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and MintPress News
contributor exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics
and perceptions. His work has previously appeared in The Cradle,
Declassified U.K., and Grayzone. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg
<https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/>.*

* Republish our stories! * MintPress News is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
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