Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani
Moerdani was born on 2 October 1932 at Cepu, Central Java to R.G. Moerdani Sosrodirjo, a railway worker and his Indo Eurasian wife Jeanne Roech, who was half German. Moerdani was the 3rd out of 11 children. Although a Muslim, Moerdani Sosrodirjo tolerated his wife's and in their turn, his children's Catholic faith.
After the Indonesian Declaration of Independence on 17 August 1945, Moerdani was caught up in the wave of nationalism. In October 1945, aged just 13, Moerdani took part in an assault on a Kempeitai headquarters in Solo after the Kempetai refused to surrender to the Indonesian troops. When the People's Security Army, the precursor to the ABRI was formed, Moerdani joined a Student Army (Tentara Pelajar) which came under the authority of an ABRI Brigade. From this brigade, Moerdani took part in the Indonesian National Revolution against the Netherlands, the highlight of which saw him participating in a successful general offensive on Solo.
Once Indonesia's independence was safely secured, Moerdani took the opportunity to complete his education, graduating from middle school and going on to high school; in the meantime taking a part-time job helping his uncle sell goods. In 1951, the Indonesian Government began undertaking demobilization but Moerdani's brigade was deemed to have performed well enough for its soldiers to continue serving with ABRI. Moerdani, together with his brigade enlisted with the Army Officers Education Center and began training in January 1951. At the same time, Moerdani also took part in the Infantry Trainers School (SPI).
Moerdani completed his military education from P3AD in April 1952 and from SPI in May 1952. He was also given the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. 2 years later, in 1954, Moerdani received his commission as a Second Lieutenant and was stationed at TT III Siliwangi, which looked after the security of West Java.
In a bid to deal with the threat of Darul Islam, Colonel Alex Evert Kawilarang, the Commander of TT III Siliwangi formed the TT III Siliwangi Commando Unit. Their success interested the Army Headquarters in Jakarta to endorse the formation of a Special Forces Unit. As such, in 1954, the Army Commando Unit (KKAD) was formed. Moerdani was assigned as a trainer for the soldiers wishing to join KKAD and was appointed Head of the Teaching Bureau. In 1956, KKAD went through a name change, and it was now known as the Army Paracommando Regiment (RPKAD). Not long after, Moerdani was appointed a Company Commander.
As a member of RPKAD, Moerdani became part of the battle to suppress the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia, a Sumatran-based separatist group. In March 1958, Moerdani parachuted down behind enemy lines in Pekanbaru and Medan to prepare the groundwork for ABRI to take over the two cities. A month later, on 17 April 1958, Moerdani took part in Operation 17 August, an operation which struck the killing blow on the PRRI rebellion. Moerdani's next assignment was to take care of the Universal Struggle Charter (Permesta), another separatist group in Sulawesi. Similar to what he did in Sumatra, Moerdani and his troops laid down the foundations for an all out attack on Permesta who surrendered in June 1958.
After PRRI and Permesta's surrenders, Moerdani, was stationed in Aceh. In the beginning of 1960, he contemplated becoming an Army Aircraft Pilot but was dissuaded from it by Ahmad Yani who sent him to the United States to join the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning. There, Moerdani took part in an Infantry Officers Advanced Course and trained with the 101st Airborne Division.
Moerdani returned to Indonesia in 1961 to find ABRI preparing itself for a takeover of West Irian. His 1st assignment was to train the paratroopers who was supposed to land behind enemy lines and infiltrate. As the months went on, the infiltration didn't bring concrete results. In May 1962, Moerdani was assigned to lead a paratroop drop which consisted of RPKAD and Kostrad soldiers. After landing in West Irian in late June 1962, Moerdani led his troops in fighting skirmishes against members of the Dutch Marine until the United Nations interfered in August 1962 and decided in giving West Irian to Indonesia. Once there was a ceasefire, Moerdani was placed in charge of all the guerilla troops in West Irian.
By 1964, Moerdani was back in Jakarta again. His achievements during the West Irian campaign had caught the eye of President Sukarno who wanted to recruit him as a Presidential Bodyguard and marry him to one of his daughters. Moerdani held his ground and rejected both offers.
In 1964, Moerdani and an RPKAD Battalion was sent to Borneo to fight a guerilla war against Malaysian and British troops as part of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation. However, he didn't spend a long time at Borneo, returning to Jakarta by September. At this stage, Moerdani had once again contemplated on expanding his career this time trying to decide between a career as a territorial commander in Borneo or as a military attachx. He picked the latter and had asked for a posting in Beijing.
At the end of 1964, a meeting of RPKAD officers was held and Moerdani was invited along. The topic of the meeting was to discuss removing crippled soldiers from RPKAD to which Moerdani objected. News of Moerdani's objection found its way to Yani, who was now the Army Commander. Yani summoned Moerdani and accused him of insubordination. The meeting ended with Yani ordering Moerdani to move from RPKAD to Kostrad. Moerdani handed over command of his RPKAD battalion on 6 January 1965.
Moerdani's move from RPKAD to Kostrad had been a sudden one and there had been no position prepared for him. His 1st post was as an officer attached to the Operations and Training Bureau. His luck changed when Lieutenant Colonel Ali Murtopo found out that he was part of Kostrad. Having been acquainted with Moerdani during the West Irian campaign, Ali recognized Moerdani's potential and wanted to further develop it. Coincidentally, Ali at the time was the Intelligence Assistant for the 1st Battle Command, a Kostrad unit stationed in Sumatra in preparation for an invasion of Malaysia. Ali recruited Moerdani to be Deputy Intelligence Assistant and gave him his 1st taste of intelligence work.
In addition to becoming Deputy Intelligence Assistant, Moerdani also became part of Ali's Special Operations intelligence team. His task was to gather intelligence on Malaysia from Bangkok under the cover of being a Garuda Indonesia ticket seller. As 1965 wore on, his assignment also covered sending messages out by Army officers who were not interested in Confrontation to the Malaysian Government for the prospect of gaining a peaceful settlement.
After the 30 September Movement was crushed on 1 October 1965 by Kostrad Commander Major General Suharto, Moerdani's activities intensified. He was joined by Ali and together they began working at laying the foundations for an end of the Confrontation. Their efforts culminated on 11 August 1966 when the Indonesian and Malaysian Government signed an agreement to normalise relations between the two nations.
Although peace had been reached, Moerdani stayed in Malaysia as chargx d'affaires. His 1st task was to ensure the release of Indonesian soldiers and guerilla fighters which had been caught during Confrontation. In March 1968, with an ambassador finally assigned to Malaysia, Moerdani became the head of the Indonesian Consulate in Western Malaysia. At the same time, he continued being part of Opsus with the assignment of conducting surveillance on the goings on in the Vietnam War.
At the end of 1969, Moerdani was transferred to Seoul to become the Indonesian Consul General at South Korea. In 1973, Moerdani's status was upgraded from Consul General to chargx d'affaires.
Moerdani's diplomatic career came to an abrupt end with the Malari Incident and within a week of the incident, Moerdani had returned to Jakarta. President Suharto immediately gave him a collection of positions which gave him a lot of power. Moerdani became the Intelligence Assistant to the Minister of Defense and Security, Intelligence Assistant to the Commander of the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order, Head of the Strategic Intelligence Centre (Pusintelstrat), and Deputy Head of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Bakin).
In 1975, Moerdani became deeply involved with the matter of East Timor's decolonization. In August 1975, Moerdani began sending Indonesian soldiers under the guise of volunteers to begin infiltrating East Timor. The situation intensified on 28 November 1975 when Fretilin declared East Timor's independence. The intelligence operation was ceased and a military operation, Operation Seroja was set up in its stead. Despite it not being an intelligence operation, Moerdani continued to be involved, this time as the planner of the invasion. His method in planning the invasion drew the ire of colleagues because it kept some high command officers, such as Deputy ABRI Commander Surono and Kostrad Commander Leo Lopulisa in the dark when they should have been involved in the planning process.
On 28 March 1981, Garuda Indonesia Flight 206, which was supposed to be flying from Jakarta to Medan was hijacked. The news arrived to Moerdani at Ambon where he was attending an ABRI Leadership meeting with ABRI Commander M Jusuf. Moerdani immediately left the meeting to go to Jakarta to prepare to take action, in the mean time the hijacked aircraft had landed at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport. Moerdani met with Suharto and secured the President's permission to use force in a bid to release the hostages; the rationale being that the hijackers should not be allowed to intimidate the aircraft pilots into flying to other countries.
Accompanied by troops from the Battle Intelligence Troop Commando, formerly RPKAD, Moerdani left for Thailand. Although his plan encountered some resistance, particularly from the Thai Government, there was finally an agreement to take the military action. On the morning of 31 March 1981, Moerdani personally led the Kopassandha troops to storm the aircraft, take back control of it, and save the hostages.
In March 1983, Moerdani reached the pinnacle of his Military career when Suharto named him as the Commander-in-Chief of ABRI and promoted him to the rank of full General. During the inauguration ceremony, Suharto gave recognition to Moerdani's loyalty by personally placing Moerdani's epaulettes on his shoulder.
Moerdani reached this position with the distinction of having never commanded a unit bigger than a battalion and having not served as a Regional Military Commander and Army Chief of Staff. In addition to the Commandership of ABRI, Moerdani was also appointed Commander of Kopkamtib, and retained his position in Pusintelstrat, which was renamed Strategic Intelligence Body (BAIS). Unlike previous New Order ABRI Commanders, Moerdani didn't hold the Defense and Security Ministry.
Moerdani immediately took steps to reorganize ABRI, listing cutting costs, improving efficiency, and improving professionalism as his immediate goals.
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