The Thug Pebble in Prabowo's Shoe

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Hercules and GRIB Jaya are becoming increasingly aggressive in the Prabowo Subianto era. There is a mutually beneficial relationship.

ROSARIO de Marshal, alias Hercules, has gained a new stage in the administration of President Prabowo Subianto. Members of the United Indonesian People’s Movement, or Gerakan Indonesia Rakyat Bersatu (GRIB) Jaya, the mass organization that he leads, have been free to cause trouble in a number of areas. Hercules has even challenged the retired Indonesian Military (TNI) generals who proposed removing Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Gibran.

In Depok, West Java, they set fire to operational vehicles belonging to police officers who were trying to arrest them. Members of GRIB Jaya stormed the Bandung headquarters of Pemuda Pancasila (Pancasila Youth), another mass organization, and threatened to bring tens of thousands of people to the office of the West Java Governor. In Central Kalimantan, GRIB Jaya members sealed the office of a company.

These Hercules’ shows of force are inextricably linked to Prabowo becoming president. Prabowo’s letter of resignation as chair of the GRIB Jaya’s board of patrons, which was subsequently denied, underlines the special link between them. Hercules was able to take control of the security business in Jakarta thanks to Prabowo, who brought him from East Timor when the province was annexed in 1975.

When it was established in 2011, GRIB Jaya announced that it was a wing of the Gerindra Party, Prabowo’s political vehicle. After disappearing during several administrations, and repeatedly being jailed for involvement in land disputes, Hercules returned to the stage when Prabowo became Defense Minister in 2019. GRIB Jaya members, who initially were confined to Java, have now spread to almost every region of Indonesia.

In the 2014, 2019 and 2024 presidential elections, Hercules and his men openly supported Prabowo. This support and his links with Prabowo led to GRIB Jaya being respected by businesses in matters of security services. Electoral politics are closely linked to the needs of mass organizations to obtain backing from those in power.

For Hercules, the name of Prabowo Subianto is not only a powerful way of recruiting members and increasing income from the security business, but also means they are immune from actions by the law enforcement authorities. Police lacked the courage to arrest them despite their frequent breaches of the law and disturbances of the peace. The police only adopted a more resolute stance after Prabowo asked the authorities to take action against thuggery.

Prabowo’s seeming reluctance to take action against Hercules shows that he is intentionally maintaining paramilitary groups in the interests of politics and power. He and the Gerindra Party have only alluded to his resignation from GRIB Jaya. And in many speeches, Prabowo has not explicitly condemned the thuggery of mass organizations.

In the past, groups of thugs were used by the government as a tool to enforce the state’s version of social order. According to Ian Douglas Wilson in his book "The Politics of Protection Rackets in Post-New Order Indonesia: Coercive Capital, Authority and Street Politics" (Politik Jatah Preman: Ormas dan Kuasa Jalanan di Indonesia Pasca Orde Baru), mass organizations transformed into political thugs or adapted to political figures and parties in the democratic era after 1998. Hercules is an example of a thug that the political sociologist of Murdoch University, Australia, includes in the second category. They exploit the democracy that respects freedom of association while hiding behind the government when carrying out their violence business.

So, hoping that Prabowo will deal resolutely with Hercules and GRIB Jaya is wishing for the impossible. Like all political figures, Prabowo makes use of mass organizations before, during and after elections to increase his vote share and as a show of strength to protect him from public criticism.

It is not impossible that the motive behind providing Hercules with a stage is the revisions to the Mass Organizations Law. With widespread public support for the government to take a firm stance against groups of thugs, politicians saw an opportunity to amend the law, but this also gave the government power to repress organizations with differing views.

These complex links damage Indonesian democracy. Mass organizations protected by the authorities mean that law enforcement and economic freedom are disrupted. They are not shy about extorting money from businesses. The building of a factory by Chinese electric vehicle producer BYD in Subang, West Java, was disrupted when a group of thugs caused trouble.

If Prabowo continues to allow groups of thugs to disturb public order, his dream of turning Indonesia into an ‘Asian tiger’ and achieving economic growth of eight percent will not be achieved. Hercules and GRIB Jaya, who now have a stage, will become a pebble in Prabowo’s shoes for the next five years.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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