I Gusti Kompyang Manila
I Gusti Kompyang Manila was an Indonesian military officer, civil servant, and politician who served in a number of positions in the Indonesian National Armed Forces and the Government of Indonesia, including as the deputy commander of the Army Military Police Corps, chairman of the Home Governance College, and the final secretary general of the Department of Information. Raised from humble beginnings in Bali, Manila served in the Army Police Corps and played a pivotal role in Operation Ganesha, a landmark mission to relocate wild Sumatran elephants in South Sumatra. As secretary general of the department of information, Manila oversaw its dissolution and the transition to the National Agency for Communication and Information. Upon retirement, Manila joined the NasDem Party and held strategic positions within the party.
Early life and education
Manila was born on 8 July 1942 in Kampung Anyar, Singaraja, Bali, as the eldest son of three of I Gusti Ketut Yatra, a police officer, and Ni Jero Taman. At the time of his birth, his father was on duty, and his mother was brought to the nearest hospital by his nephew in the middle of the night. He was named Manila in reference to the fall of Manila to the Imperial Japanese Army during its Philippines campaign, which was widely reported at the time of his birth.Manila's father, who was on duty in Lombok, died while Manila was three. Following his father's death, Manila's family moved to Gianyar, and by 1949 his mother remarried. His father's family rejected his mother's decision, prompting Manila and his two younger sisters to be brought to Denpasar. Manila was seven years old at that time.
Manila lived in poverty during his elementary school years, and he had to take different jobs in order to pay his tuition. He sold cakes in the morning, and, after school, worked as a ballboy at the Puputan tennis field in Denpasar. Near the evening until night, Manila became an announcer and spread movie pamphlets at the Wisnu theater, a local theater in Denpasar. As he grew up and became stronger, he was promoted as the screen puller in the theater.
Upon completing elementary school, Manila continued his education at the Saraswati Middle School in Taen Siat. Manila learned to ride bicycle at the 2nd grade and, after he was able to ride a bicycle, he worked as a newspaper carrier for the Suara Indonesia daily. He was able to pay his middle school tuition with the money he made as a newspaper carrier. He continued this job after he graduated middle school and continued his education at the Saraswati High School in Kreneng.
Manila finished high school in 1961 and he was recommended by Bali's provincial secretary, Ida Bagus Ketut Rurus, one of his newspaper subscribers, to continue his education at the C basic course in Lombok. At the same time, he also applied for the Indonesian Military Academy. He was accepted for both and he opted for the military academy. He departed for the academy alongside I Made Kerana, who was the only other applicant from Bali who was accepted.
Manila's work routine during his childhood made him able to overcome hazing and physical challenges in the military academy. He often read books on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Sudirman in the academy's library. Shortly before his graduation from the academy, Manila made an oath to circumcise himself after an incident at the academy's pool, in which he was found out by other cadets to be uncircumcised. His action was later followed by his juniors.
Upon graduating from the academy in 1964 at the age of 24, Manila was commissioned as a second lieutenant within the army police corps. He visited Gianyar and reconciled with his mother, which was met with opposition from his relatives, as traditionally his mother was not a part of their family anymore since she had already married another man. Manila rejected this interpretation and, until his mother's death in 2010, spared some of his wages for his mother.
Career
Peacekeeping mission
From 1977 to 1978, he joined the Garuda Force VII-6 contingent, which was tasked with maintaining peace in the Middle East following the Yom Kippur War. Serving as a liaison officer with the rank of major, he was stationed in the Sinai desert. His duties included overseeing the UNDOF Zone separating Egypt and Israel, ensuring the area remained free of military activity from either side, and inspecting individuals crossing the border.During a patrol, Manila and his colleagues were caught in a sudden, powerful sandstorm. After enduring the storm for nearly 30 minutes, they found themselves disoriented and lost, with their communication equipment failing. In a moment of despair, they were discovered by a Bedouin man on a camel. Recognizing that they were from Indonesia, the man invited them to his simple tent, where he offered them tea. During their conversation, Manila admired a knife tucked into the man's belt. Upon learning that Manila was a collector of sharp weapons, the man, as a sign of friendship, immediately offered him the knife. Manila, respecting the local tradition, accepted the gift and gave the Bedouin several coins in return. After spending two hours at the camp, they were able to re-establish communication with their headquarters and were picked up by helicopter.
Operation Ganesha
Manila's most notable military assignment came in late 1982 when he became the chief of the Sriwijaya Regional Military Command's army police with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was tasked with leading Operation Ganesha, an unprecedented mission to herd hundreds of wild elephants out of the Air Sugihan and Air Saleh swamp forests in South Sumatra. The operation was initiated by the then Minister of Development Supervision and Environment, Emil Salim, and commissioned by the military commander of the Sriwijaya Regional Military Command, Major General Try Sutrisno. With no prior experience or established strategy for such an operation, Manila described the mission as a significant challenge.The primary objective of Operation Ganesha was to prevent elephants from damaging local settlements and crops without causing them harm. The operation, which lasted for 75 days between October and December 1982, involved a large team of over 300 military personnel, 500-740 transmigrants, and conservation staff. The team's methods included using loud noises and recordings of human shouts, helicopter blades, chainsaws, and TNT explosions to guide the elephants. During the operation, Manila grew a thick mustache and beard, which he later said was a strategy to repel mosquitoes. Following the successful herding of approximately 300 wild elephants, the operation received significant attention from both national and international media. After the operation, Manila remained a vocal advocate for wildlife conservation, particularly for Sumatran elephants.
Chairman of the Home Governance College
Manila's career rose following the successful Operation Ganesha. He served as the commander of the army police corps education center from 1983 to 1988 and as the deputy commander of the army police corps from 1988 to 1993. On 9 January 1993, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general with his appointment as the armed forces commander advisor. On 21 September 1995, Manila became the chairman of the Home Governance College, Indonesia's civil servant college. His appointment was followed by a promotion to the rank of major general on 1 October 1996.As the college's chairman, Manila introduced facilities such as billiards hall, fitness center, deer farm, and student shooting club. Despite receiving silent criticism from some alumni, Manila believed these policies were necessary to ensure the students remained "human beings" and not "robots". His leadership, though brief, led to a revolutionary change in the status of the graduating students, who were able to obtain a bachelor's degree and a higher civil servant rank upon graduation, which a significant leap compared to previous generations. However, Manila was also criticized for transforming the college into an increasingly rigid, authoritarian, and heavily militaristic institution, by implementing a curriculum which emphasized military training and the dual-function mentality of the armed forces and enforcing military discipline.
Department of Information and BIKN
After serving within the army police corps and the Home Governance College, on 15 May 1998 Manila became the secretary general of the Department of Information, replacing Tonny Soekaton from the navy. Six days after his appointment, President Suharto resigned from the presidency and was replaced by B. J. Habibie. Habibie brought press freedom by signing a new press law. News union and observers pressured the government to amend the broadcasting law, including abolishing the role of the department of information to regulate broadcasting.Demands to amend the broadcasting law significantly weakened the position of the department. From its internal, on 10 June 1999 civil servants of the department of information decided to disband the department's civil servant union, which set a precedent. Manila supported the dissolution, stating that the decision was made democratically. Habibie's predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, abolished the department based on the advice from information minister Yunus Yosfiah that the new press law made the information department obsolete. Abdurrahman established the National Agency for Communication and Information in its place on 7 December 1999. Manila continued to serve as secretary general until the expiry of his term on 1 April 2000.
As the most senior bureaucrat within the department of information, Manila was designated as the authorizator, or acting head, of the agency. Only half of the information department employees were absorbed into the new agency, while the other half were reassigned to other agencies such as the police, Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, Ministry of Law, armed forces, and the intelligence. Although the agency had a well-defined function on paper, which was to bridge communication between the government and the public, in reality the agency never functioned as expected, as it never had a clear leadership. When President Megawati Soekarnoputri nominated a number of department of information bureaucrats for the agency's head, Manila refused to be nominated as he wanted to focus himself on sports.
Another problem that hindered BIKN was on assets, as 3 billion rupiahs of funds were being held under the Anta Kupa foundation, a welfare fund established by information minister R. Hartono. Manila called for the return of the funds to the former information department employees, but expressed doubt that the money would be recovered, citing the foundation’s private ownership and lack of legal ties to the information department. At the same time, BIKN struggled to trace other missing assets and funds that vanished during the transition, as some assets have reportedly changed hands.