Colonel Pranoto Rekso Samoedro was appointed to be Pangdam Diponegoro replacing Suharto. Pranoto, ‘the religious soldier’, withdrew all the facilities owned by Kodam Diponegoro which were rented by Suharto to Chinese businessmen for his personal needs. No wonder then, Suharto was also disenchanted by Pranoto, Nasution and Yani.
In SSKAD, Suharto was a candidate of Senate Leader. But, DI. Panjaitan resisted and he declared a distrust to Suharto. Panjaitan marked Suharto as someone who could be trusted as Suharto got so many bad track records in his military career—for example a smuggling with Chinese businessmen and used a reason to strengthen his military unit, as in fact, he used it to enrich himself.
For all that occasion, Suharto was really infuriated. Besides to Nasution, Yani, and Pranoto, Suharto’s vengeance was now to Panjaitan also. In 1 Octover 1965 Event, all Suharto’s enemies—Nasution, Yani, and Panjaitan—become the murder target, while Suharto himself—the second people in Army—was not in the list.
When Yani was killed, Bung Karno appointed Pranoto Rekso Samudro as Chief of Army, but Pranoto was intercepted by Suharto, so it was Suharto who took over the Army leader. To avoid a civil war, as Siliwangi in West Java (Ibrahim Adjie) and KKO (marine) in East Java had pledged to always support Sukarno and if Sukarno ordered to ‘sweep’ Suharto’s force in Jakarta, then Sukarno appointed Suharto as Army Commander on October 14th, 1965. (continued)
