April 21, 2017•Update: April 23, 2017
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
The military has rejected online media reports alleging that senior generals, including the army chief is planning to overthrow the democratically-elected government of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
The Intercept on Wednesday published an investigative report titled "Trump's Indonesian allies in bed with ISIS-backed militia seeking to oust elected president".
The report said: “Associates of Donald Trump in Indonesia have joined army officers and a vigilante street movement linked to ISIS [Daesh] in a campaign that ultimately aims to oust the country’s president”.
It went on to add that Indonesian military and intelligence officials were involved in the coup bid against the president “from behind the scenes”.
The Intercept report was also translated and published on the Indonesian-language website, Tirto.
In its response to the report, army spokesman Major Gen. Wuryanto on Friday said: "In the near future, we will take legal action. We will report [the online site Tirto] to the police," according to detik.com.
Wuryanto rejected all allegations in the report.
"Before publishing that report, Tirto should have confirmed with the army chief or with me, because this is a sensitive charge," Wuryanto said.
The Indonesian military has had a long involvement in the politics of the country. Former President Gen. Suharto had allowed the institution to act both as a security guard and to occupy political office. But the political function was abolished after Suharto stepped down from office in 1998.
