The Suharto lobby.

• Author: Press, Eyal
• Position: Indonesia's voice in Washington - Cover Story

On December 10, 1996, the day the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, the Indonesian government held a meeting at the National Press Club in Washington. There, standing before a podium in a room full of reporters, Arifin Siregar, the Indonesian ambassador to the United States, delivered a smoothly worded address downplaying Indonesia's human-rights abuses in East Timor and urging Americans not to judge the Suharto regime by its past actions. "We learn from our mistakes," he said.

Following the speech, an Australian reporter turned attention to the question of lobbying, asking Siregar what role was being played by a Washington-based group called the U.S.-Indonesia Society. There was a moment's pause. Then Siregar responded, "It is not a lobbying organization--not at all.... The primary purpose is to improve relations."

Not five minutes later, the focus shifted to the back of the room, where Paul Wolfowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and now a trustee of the U.S.-Indonesia Society, expounded on the importance of America's relationship to the Suharto regime and the sensitivity of the East Timor question. After Wolfowitz finished, the audience heard more of the same from Edward Masters, another former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, and currently the president of the U.S.-Indonesia Society. "The best thing to do," Masters explained, "is to work with [ the Indonesians], not confront them, and to try to find common ground."

As Siregar gazed contentedly at the audience, his message echoed by the prestigious diplomats, it was evident that the meeting had achieved its primary objective, which was to persuade American reporters to go easy on the Suharto regime.

Ever since the Clinton fundraising scandal broke, the U.S. media have flocked to uncover the details of Clinton's relationship to James and Mochtar Riady of the Lippo Group, and John Huang, the former Lippo executive, Commerce Department official, and Democratic Party fundraiser. The speculation is that Lippo, the Riadys, and Huang, through their massive donations and collections, altered U.S. policy toward Indonesia, helping to mute the Administration's concerns about human rights and labor abuses.

But Lippo, the Riadys, and Huang have hardly been acting alone. U.S. corporations, former senior government officials, and Suharto cronies have also played a role. One of their primary channels of influence has been the U.S.-Indonesia Society, a group founded in 1994 by a collection of political and corporate heavyweights. Sponsors of this Society include not only the Lippo Group, but U.S. companies with investments in Indonesia such as Freeport-McMoRan, Texaco, Mobil, Rayth'eon, Hughes Aircraft, and Merrill Lynch. In addition to former ambassadors Wolfowitz and Masters, the Society's membership list includes George Benson, who was once a U.S. military attache in Indonesia, and President Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz, who is the group's honorary co-chair. The U.S.-Indonesia Society also includes Indonesian business leaders and former ministers and generals with close ties to the Indonesian military and to Suharto himself. James Riady, for instance, is a trustee.

This is the real Suharto lobby in Washington. It consists of major multinational corporations, Suharto insiders, Indonesian billionaires, and U.S. foreign-policy elites all working in harmony to achieve two shared objectives: downplaying human-rights abuses, and bolstering U.S. commercial, diplomatic, and...