TOMY WINATA,THE UNTOUCHABLE?

Politikindonesia.com [ 2003-06-06 18:17:32 ]
Monday, March 17 2003 must be a historic moment for our nation in a time when Tommy Winata, widely known as one of the untouchables from the dark side came to the parliament building on his own for a hearing with the House pertaining to his case with TEMPO, one of the upper level media in town.

Tomy’s appearance had caught attention from a huge number of TV and radio stations in town who came with prime time show calculation. Most of us began to put off schedules for what the untouchable would have to say afterwards. To give you but a piece of description, some of my office mates left their desks for the TV show and being so curious about the event I called one of my collogue at other office only to know that they did just the same thing as we did. Quiet surprising is that they are from Medan, Padang, Bandung, Yogyakarta , Malang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Balikpapan and Makassar!

This reminded me to the time when the second First Lady Tien Soeharto and Lady Di of England went away and pushed all TV stations to a pool for such a broadcast. For TV stations this is but a heaven blessing given the fact that they did not have to work hard for a prime time show with the first rating.

I had eventually came to a question of why not a TV pool for Tomy”s case, so that the cost production can scaled down for a business calculation?Only if I were a marketing director for Fast Moving Consumer goodshad I bought all the commercial spots as they will fortunately draw a lot of audience.

As many have realized it, majority of the audience found the right time to express their dissatisfaction towards Tomy but also there were some who came to their senses and then behaved towards the so called untouchable TW(Tomy Winata) The show, in fact, had uncovered what many people have doubted as to how credible are members of the House and such a poor management style of Tempo Magazine.

The fact is there is no one standing on behalf of the police department and as it did, the show was unintentionally a means with which to bring up Tommy’s popularity. My article focuses only in two main issues i.e the magnitude of the issue and Tommy’s personal brevity given the fact that the forum was ,to many, a mere interrogation model.

Now let’ us put this picture against the background big thieves such as Syamsul Nursalim, Prayogo Pangestu, Anthony Salim, the late Hendra Rahardja, Edi Tansil or other crony from Cendana family. What Tomy had done is totally different from most of the rest mentioned before. To my curiosity, l had taped all the TV show and had more than three times replayed it for my self.

To clear up my mind, l watched a number of videotapes describing the mutual relationship between the mafia world and sate power holders to name some pieces as Godfather 1-3, Marlon Brando, al Pacino, City Hall- Al Pacino, Hoffa-Jack Nicholson and The Untouchable-Robert De Niro-Kevin Costner. All these stories tell but one single truth; being brave and embracing the marginalized communities without to many strategies.

I believe such a profile will always be whenever time exists. In my opinion, through CNBC and CNN coverage, Tomy’s show is a good exercise for police department and the supreme court to tell notorious conglomerates hiding in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong while enjoy life without any guilty feelings at all.

The massage is: Do it Tomy’s way. Come and talk publicly through radio and TV stations!Remember the time when Tommy went to the rest room without a bodyguard? For a man like himself, he would have thought twice leaving the room alone as hit-men were probably there to end his life right away. But he did it. Read the book of Assassination-Lee Davis and you’ll realize that murders of John & Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Anwar Sadat took place in front of the public.

Notice his self confidence, being around people who oppose him most of the time! They are more educated as well. Being covered by the army is just another thing at all. Tommy’s close relationship with the army is publicly known. heis the CRM(Cash Register Machine for many top brass in Indonesian army.

No doubt, his public appearance on that day would have caused many high officials in Cilangkap and Trunojoyo hold their breath. Military doctrine dictates about guarding the institutions over any other interests including Tommy himself and his business network. A Few Good Men-Jack Nicholson-Tom Cruise-Demi Moore and The General’s Daughter-John Travolta, reconfirmed this.

Tommy, to say it more exactly, is merely a disposable gold asset in the intelligent dictionary. Being the strategic pillar of the nation, Indonesian army is publicly known as an institution with poor financial backup. This explains as how most of the military top brasses join a businessman like Tommy to survive.

Those in lower levels act as security personnel safeguarding a business operation. Sadly, this has become a system in itself. Indonesia experiences a surplus in term of armed forces compared to some of our neighbors such as Singapore, Australia, Malaysia where bonuses of extra education and higher salary are available.

Too sad to say that we are simply unable to fairly feed the military. Put the situation against the background that certain companies offer million dollars to non governmental organizations speaking too loud about environment impacts caused by business operations of a company. The military personnel and teachers are nakedly excluded from such operations.

Back to Tommy Winata, he is a living legend of how to create a better life for most of the army personnel. And someday, many would insist to honor him with a place near other heroes at the Kalibata cemetry. A statue of Tommy will probably stand near Cilangkap in remembrance of his long life contribution for the Indonesian army.

For me, Tommy occupies the same room of honor in comparison with Oliver North in the Iran Gate case who sacrificed his life for the honor of the White House and the Pentagon.

Is Tommy the Untouchable? I don’t think so. People like Akbar Tanjung and Anthony Salim, Soeharto’s children should be more than that now that they still freely enjoy what they had illegaly harvested without any one being dare enough to bring them to Senayan for a public expose of what reasons had made them to stay.

My personal honor to Tommy Winata had made me use his initial TW as brand of my energy drink product hoping that people will be braver and not afraid to die like Tomy Winata.

[ H.Hakim ]