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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Leaked: CIA Front Preparing Color Revolution in Indonesia</h1>
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<h5><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/kit-klarenberg/">Kit Klarenberg</a> - September 6, 2023</h5></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>Documents passed anonymously to <i>MintPress News</i>
reveal the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA
front, is laying the foundations for a color revolution in Indonesia.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.ned.org/about/" target="_blank">own reckoning</a>,
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/" target="_blank">openly admitted</a> in 1991:</p>
<blockquote><p>A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”</p></blockquote>
<h2>‘The Jokowi Effect’</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Every step of the way, Widodo has battled bureaucracy and corruption while <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/12/22/a-report-card-jakarta-s-healthcare-program.html" target="_blank">pursuing programs</a>
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 <a href="http://time.com/54865/indonesia-elections-jokowi-joko-widodo/" target="_blank">routinely speak</a>
of the “Jokowi Effect.” After the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle named him their presidential candidate in 2014, their <a href="http://news.detik.com/read/2014/03/03/111623/2513327/10/charta-politika-deklarasi-jokowi-sebelum-pileg-pdip-bisa-tembus-30" target="_blank">vote share leaped</a> 30% in that year’s legislative election.</p>
<p>Widodo’s candidacy also <a href="https://www.viva.co.id/arsip/488652-jokowi-capres-indeks-saham-melesat" target="_blank">reportedly stimulated</a>
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 <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2015/01/the-trouble-with-indonesias-foreign-policy-priorities-under-jokowi/" target="_blank">also prioritized</a>
“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.</p>
<p>Widodo <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/07/jokowi-calls-unity-reconciliation-palestine.html" target="_blank">has encouraged</a>
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 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170922080708/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-irans-supreme-leader-condemns-myanmar-violence-49785622" target="_blank">sizable aid</a> to oppressed Muslims abroad. Most egregiously, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/7/5/indonesian-leaders-russia-ukraine-trip-divides-critics-at-home" target="_blank">he flew</a>
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 <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-vladimir-putin-stays-invited-to-g20-summit-indonesian-ambassador-says/" target="_blank">fierce Western criticism</a>.</p>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AP19103419003258_edited.jpg" alt="Joko Widodo" width="410" height="410" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Joko Widodo addresses an adoring crowd at a campaign rally in Jakarta on April 13, 2019. Dita Alangkara | AP
<p>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 <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2022/12/01/mining-capital-and-the-indonesian-state/" target="_blank">prevented Western exploitation</a> of his country’s vast resource wealth while maintaining cordial relations with both East and West and <a href="http://cns.miis.edu/nam/index.php/site/showProfile/51" target="_blank">personally championing</a> the Non-Aligned Movement, members of which eschewed both power blocs to pursue an independent path.</p>
<p>Sukarno’s bold refusal to bow to imperial interests made him a thoroughly marked man. In 1965, he was ousted in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/slaughter-in-indonesia-britains-secret-propaganda-war" target="_blank">blood-spattered military coup</a>
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 <a href="https://asiasociety.org/filmmaker-chris-hilton-anti-communist-purges-indonesia-1965-66" target="_blank">CIA describes</a> his purge of leftists as “one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century.”</p>
<p>Widodo is now preparing to leave office, his constitutionally-mandated terms over, and personal approval ratings at <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesian-president-jokowis-approval-rating-all-time-high-poll-2023-01-22/" target="_blank">all-time highs</a>.
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 <i>MintPress News </i>make clear the U.S. Empire is preparing to pull off another coup in Jakarta under the aegis of “democracy promotion.”</p>
<p>This has been NED’s raison d’etre since inception, in 1983. The organization was <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/08/cias-hidden-hand-in-democracy-groups/" target="_blank">explicitly founded</a>
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.</p>
<p>NED’s malign meddling over the years is too lengthy to list here. But recently, this has included sponsoring a <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-point-to-us-hand-in-cuba-protests/277987/">failed uprising</a> in Cuba, <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/hong-kong-protest-united-states-destabilize-china/261712/">funneling money</a> to separatist protesters in Hong Kong, and <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-writes-belarus-familiar-regime-change-script/278700/">attempting to topple</a>
the Belarusian government. Having floundered in these insurrectionary
adventures is evidently no deterrent to trying again in Indonesia now.</p>
<h2>‘Personal Branding Development’</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.nsf-journal.hr/online-issues/case-studies/id/1300" target="_blank">works </a>with
another, the National Democratic Institute, on regime change operations
abroad. The pair are innately linked to their respective namesake
political parties at home.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.ned.org/region/asia/indonesia-2021/" target="_blank">Endowment grant records</a>, from 2022, show the Institute was given $700,000 for this.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/IMG_20200122_140449_edited.jpg" alt="Emerging Leaders Academy" width="410" height="410" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Atlantic Council Fellow <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/parker-novak/" target="_blank">Parker Novak</a> , second from right, poses with participants of an Emerging Leaders Academy event in 2022
<p>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.”</p>
<p>Perludem <a href="https://anfrel.org/perludem-publishes-regional-elections-and-democracy-journal/" target="_blank">publishes regular</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, <i>Make Election Great Again!</i>, where attendees were taught the fine art of “identifying the strategic role of students in the 2024 election.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>‘Achieved Milestone’</h2>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-6136245/jokowi-resmi-teken-uu-ppp-nomor-132022" target="_blank">recently signed</a>
by Widodo. Fearing the legislation will “dampen foreign investor
enthusiasm” in the country, “the U.S. firmly supports activities opposed
to it.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AP23100538032690_edited.jpg" alt="" width="410" height="410" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">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
<p>Those protests <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1757714/labor-party-to-stage-protest-against-job-creation-act-and-presidential-threshold-today" target="_blank">went ahead</a>
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.”</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/average-salary-in-indonesia/" target="_blank">earns less</a> than $800 monthly.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://anfrel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/The-Asia-Pacific-Journal-of-Election-and-Democracy-Volume-I-Number-01.pdf" target="_blank">February 2021 edition</a>
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.</p>
<p>Eighteen months later, Perludem <a href="https://anfrel.org/perludem-international-idea-to-launch-electoral-redistricting-app/" target="_blank">launched an app</a>
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.</p>
<h2>‘Budgets are Tight’</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Usually, the sums involved are vastly higher. For example, over the
12 months leading up to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution, NED <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140226100532/http://www.ned.org/fa/where-we-work/eurasia/ukraine%5C" target="_blank">pumped around</a> $20 million into the country. Still, Western journalists, politicians, and pundits <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/technology/china-russia-propaganda.html?smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&smtyp=cur" target="_blank">aggressively rubbished</a> all suggestions that insurrectionary upheaval was anything other than an expression of <a href="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" target="_blank">popular will</a>,
resulting from surging yearning for liberalism and democracy by the
overwhelming majority of citizens. They have done so ever since.</p>
<p>This is despite contemporary polls <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/12/who-are-the-protesters-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">never showing</a>
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; <a href="https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-coup-how-cia-front-laid" target="_blank">every actor</a>
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 <a href="https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/in-ukraine-how-little-has-changed-even-after-orange-revolution" target="_blank">openly declaring</a> their desire to overthrow the government in the years prior; the Maidan demonstrations <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/wusa.12457" target="_blank">being riddled</a> with hardcore nationalists.</p>
<p>One might still argue many Maidan protesters <i>were </i>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>From Washington’s perspective, the importance of ensuring a pliant
government is installed in Indonesia cannot be understated. With U.S.
military chiefs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/02/us-general-gut-feeling-war-china-sparks-alarm-predictions" target="_blank">openly </a>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.</p>
<p>Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News</p>
<p><em><strong>Kit Klarenberg</strong> 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 <a href="https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">@KitKlarenberg</a>.</em></p>
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