Ali Murtopo Ali Murtopo ( Blora , Central Java , 23 September 1924 – Jakarta , 15 May 1984 ) was a prominent Indonesia n general and political figure during the first half of General Suharto ' s New Order regime . Early life . Ali Murtopo was born on 23 September 1924 in Blora , Central Java and received his education in Central Java and West Java . Military career . As a teenager , Ali joined Hizbullah but would eventually join the Indonesian Military . During the Indonesian National Revolution , Ali became a staff member in a brigade led by Ahmad Yani . In 1952 , Ali became a company Commander in Ahmad Yani ' s Banteng Raiders , an elite group of soldiers formed to chase away the remnants of the Darul Islam movement . In 1956 , whilst still in command of his Banteng Raider unit , Ali was involved in the lobbying to decide who should become the Commander of the 4th Military Territory ( TT IV ) Diponegoro , which supervised the security of the Provinces of Central Java and Yogyakarta . Although the Army Headquarters in Jakarta had decided on a candidate , those within TT IV Diponegoro , led by Yoga Sugama wanted the then Lieutenant Colonel Suharto to become the next TT IV Commander . Yoga met various officers within TT IV Diponegoro to look for support and Ali for his part , gave his support to Suharto . After getting enough support , Yoga went to Jakarta to inform the Army Headquarters of who the soldiers at TT IV Diponegoro wanted as their Commander . The Army Headquarters relented and Suharto was appointed Commander . As a reward , Ali was appointed as Territorial Assistant to Suharto with Yoga occupying the position of Intelligence Assistant . Together with Sujono Humardhani , who was in charge of finance , the four would go up the ranks together . In 1959 , Ali took part in the fighting against the Republic of Indonesia Revolutionary Government ( PRRI ) , a separatist group from Sumatra . He was sent to fight in Sumatra as a Regimental Chief of Staff with Yoga as the Regiment Commander . 1959 was also the year in which Suharto was dismissed from his position as TT IV Commander as a result of him being involved in illegal activities . Ali stayed on with TT IV which was now renamed KODAM VII / Diponegoro until early 1961 , when he rejoined Suharto . Suharto was now the Operations Assistant to the Army Chief of Staff , General A H Nasution and was now the Commander of the Army General Reserve ( Caduad ) , a strategic force unit which would be on standby , ready to be called into battle at any time . Ali received the position of Assistant to the Caduad Chief of Staff . In 1963 , Caduad would change its name to the Army Strategic Command Kostrad . During the Indonesia - Malaysia confrontation that had begun in 1963 , Kostrad had been expected to play a vital role by virtue of Suharto being appointed Deputy Commander of the Alert Theater Command ( Kolaga ) , a battle command headed by Air Marshal Omar Dhani and which had been formed for the purpose of fighting a war against Malaysia . The Army however was not enthusiastic about Confrontation and dragged its feet . Ali , now the Intelligence Assistant at Kostrad would become involved with this process . Using his Special Operations ( Opsus ) unit , Ali sent out messages to the Malaysian Government to inform them about the Army ' s stance on Confrontation and to ask the Malaysian Government to consider a peaceful solution to Confrontation . Transition to New Order . On the morning of 1 October 1965 , Ali found himself hastily summoned to the Kostrad Headquarters to address a rapidly developing incident . The morning had seen six Generals being kidnapped and unidentified troops occupying the Presidential Palace , the National Monument , and the Republic of Indonesia Radio ( RRI ) building . Suharto arrived at the scene , just in time to hear an announcement by a group calling themselves the 30 September Movement saying that they had just stopped a coup attempt by a Council of Generals . With Army Commander Ahmad Yani nowhere to be found , Suharto decided to assume the leadership of the Army in order to address the incident . The first thing to be done was to identify the unidentified troops occupying the strategic locations in Jakarta . It was soon found out that the troops were Battalion s 454 and 530 from Central and East Java . After getting this information , Suharto sent Ali on a negotiation mission to Battalion 454 . Ali conveyed Suharto ' s warning that the Battalion had until 6 PM to surrender but ultimately failed to convince them as Battalion 454 chose instead to retreat to Halim Airbase , the command post of the 30 September Movement . Nevertheless , the victory that day belonged to Suharto who regained control of Jakarta by the morning of 2 October 1965 . When Suharto was appointed Commander of the Army , Ali became part of Suharto ' s Personal Staff and together with Yoga looked after intelligence matters . Ali was by Suharto ' s side as the latter began his rise to power . In early 1966 , as the Army encouraged student protesters to demonstrate against President Sukarno , Ali played his part by assigning Kostrad troops to protect the protesters from troops loyal to the President . The political unrest finally ended on 11 March 1966 when Sukarno handed over executive authority to Suharto through Supersemar . With Suharto now holding all the political power , there was now an official effort to end Confrontation . Ali laid the groundwork for the rapprochement before official diplomacy was undertaken by Minister of Foreign Affairs Adam Malik . New Order . First Years . Ali ' s power would increase after Suharto was elected Acting President and full President by the Provisional People ' s Consultative Assembly ( MPRS ) in 1967 and 1968 respectively . In 1967 , Ali became the Deputy Head of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency ( Bakin ) but his real power was derived from his positions as a member of the President ' s team of Personal Assistants ( Aspri ) and as the Head of Opsus . As an Aspri , Ali ' s power came from the fact that he had Suharto ' s ear and that together with other Aspri members such as Sujono , he was one of a group of few people who Suharto consulted regularly for advice . As the Head of Opsus , Ali was the head of an extraconstitutional agency which had broad and undefined powers . In this capacity , he was only answerable to Suharto himself . In 1969 , together with Sarwo Edhie Wibowo , Ali was assigned by Suharto to make sure that the people of West Papua ( then known as Irian Jaya ) voted for integration with Indonesia in the Act of Free Choice . In ensuring this , Ali ' s focus was the Act of Free Choice Consultative Council ( Dewan Musyawarah Pepera ) , a group of 1 , 025 West Papuans who will vote on behalf of the whole West Papuan population . Ali used intimidation , at one point telling the West Papuans that they can go and settle on the moon if they do not vote for integration . Ali also took measures to further strengthen the position of the New Order regime . In 1970 , Ali actively interfered in the internal affairs of the Indonesian National Party ( PNI ) and the Indonesian Muslim Party ( Parmusi ) . In both cases , Ali interfered to make sure that the leadership of both parties were not hostile towards Suharto ' s Government . In 1971 , Ali also popularized the concept of the " Floating Mass " which sought to depoliticize Indonesian society and cut down on the influence of political parties . Perhaps more importantly , Ali set down the mechanisms by which Suharto would be able to be re - elected for the Presidency . After deciding on the Joint Secretariat of the Functional Groups ( Sekber Golkar ) as his political party , Suharto ordered Ali to begin preparing Sekber Golkar for the 1971 Legislative Election . Ali did so by laying down a party platform based on development , stability , order , and unity to attract voters . To further ensure the prospects of victory , Ali made sure that the Government threw its support behind Golkar and mobilized the populace to vote for Golkar . This he did by allocating quotas of the amount of vote to be won for Government officials at lower levels of Government . Ali ' s preparation paid off and on 5 July 1971 , Golkar won the Legislative Elections with 62 . 5 % of the votes . This was followed by Suharto ' s re - election to the Presidency by the People ' s Consultative Assembly ( MPR ) in 1973 . Although he held a lot of power and influence , Ali was by no means a popular figure . Among the critics of the regime , Ali , like his Aspri colleagues were disliked for the amount of power that they held despite the lack of clarity given to their roles . Ali was also unpopular amongst some colleagues for using his access to Suharto to erode their influence . At one point , he used this access to recommend an ally for the position of Provincial Governor ; whereas if the proper procedures were adhered to , it would be up to the Minister of Home Affairs to recommend the appointment of a Governor to the President . Rivalry with General Sumitro . As Suharto began his second term as President , he did not have the amount of popularity that he had when he took the office from Sukarno . As 1973 wore on , there was increasing displeasure , especially within universities with corruption , the amount of foreign investment in the Indonesian economy , and the power held by Aspri . At the same time , a rivalry was developing within the political elite . On one side was Ali , who advocated the military ' s continuing involvement with politics . On the other side was General Sumitro , the Commander of the Restoration of Security and Order Operation Command ( Kopkamtib ) , Indonesia ' s secret police agency . Sumitro wanted the military to cut down its involvement in politics and to reduce its role to a purely professional one . Towards the end of 1973 , Sumitro began to distance himself from the Government . He did not take action against the criticism and dissent directed at the regime although it was well within his brief to do so . In fact , Sumitro began holding talks in university campuses and calling for a new leadership . As 1973 drew to a close , Suharto tried to mediate the two rivals through a series of meetings but he did not succeed . On 14 January 1974 , Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka arrived in Jakarta for a visit . Tanaka ' s visit provided the ideal opportunity for those who are critical of the amount of foreign investment in the Indonesian economy to protest and express their displeasure . On the 15 and 16 January however , the protests turned violent and riots broke out in Jakarta leaving 11 dead , 300 injured , and 775 arrested . On first glance , it would seem as if the blame was Sumitro ' s . Based on the riots that ensued , it looked as if he had made the wrong decision by allowing the demonstrators to protest . But there is a theory that Ali had sent his agents into the crowd to incite the violence so that Sumitro could be discredited After Tanaka left , Suharto took action against Sumitro . Sumitro resigned the Commandership of Kopkamtib and followed it up with his resignation from the Deputy Commandership of ABRI two months later . To his chagrin however , Ali did not survive the incident intact . Suharto had decided to address some of the criticisms that had been raised by his critics , including the matter of the amount of power that the Aspri had . Suharto responded to this criticism by disbanding Aspri altogether and thus depriving Ali of a considerable amount of his power . Latter Years . After Aspri was disbanded , Murtopo did not have as much power or the leeway to use it as he did in the first few years of the regime . He was however still loyal to Suharto and in turn , Suharto still had confidence in him . When the matter of East Timor ' s decolonization emerged , Murtopo was entrusted with heading " Operasi Komodo " in early 1975 , a covert operation set up with the hopes of having East Timor integrate with Indonesia with the help of pro - Indonesian forces in East Timor and without Indonesia having to resort to military means . He was also part of the diplomacy , being sent as a special envoy to Portugal to gauge the opinion of East Timor ' s then colonial rulers and give a warning to the East Timorese in August 1975 that Indonesia would not tolerate an independent East Timor under the government of Fretilin . In 1977 , Murtopo was plagued by health problems but nevertheless he still had ambitions for the future ; hoping that he would either be made the Head of Bakin or become the Minister of Home Affairs . Ali got neither position , being named instead in 1978 as the Minister of Information in the Third Development Cabinet . After five years serving as a Minister , Murtopo became the Vice Chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council ( DPA ) . Death . Ali Murtopo died on 15 May 1984 .