The Company He Keeps: Unearthing Trump's business deals on our doorstep.

By Mark Davis, Peter Cronau

Updated July 4, 2017 13:33:00

THE COMPANY HE KEEPS: FOUR CORNERS

Monday July 3 2017

The Company He Keeps: Unearthing Trump's business deals on our doorstep.

"Do they like me in Indonesia?" Donald Trump

It was one of the more bizarre moments of the Trump presidential campaign. At a press conference at Trump Tower in New York to declare his loyalty to the Republican Party, Donald Trump was flanked by guests from Indonesia, and made a big show of announcing one very special guest.

"Hey, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a very - an amazing man. He is, as you know, Speaker of the House of Indonesia. He's here to see me." Donald Trump

It was unclear why the Indonesians were there, or why Mr Trump was making such a fuss of them.

Now a Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump, as he was closing in on his political rivals, was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about presidential conflicts of interest.

"The project is going to be a huge one, a mega project." Landowner

In Bali, plans are under way to Trumpify one of the most iconic and sacred sites in Bali - Tanah Lot. But curiously, for a tourist destination usually keen to talk up what the island paradise has to offer, government officials are not keen to talk about the proposed Trump Tower development.

"I can't talk about this. I cannot talk about this." Balinese government official.

In a second development on Java, the deal to build a massive gaudy theme park and resort development has been inked, leaving local farmers frightened of what the future holds.

"When the financial power of Trump comes here, we the original people who live here are powerless. Their enormous wealth buys enormous influence."

Four Corners investigates how these deals were done through an unholy alliance formed between Donald Trump and controversial business and political figures in Indonesia.

Trump's business partners have a troubling history with ties to the corrupt Suharto regime.

While at home in the United States, President Trump rails against Islamic extremism. In Indonesia, he has formed political alliances with politicians aligned with Islamist forces.

"He is dealing with the worst of Indonesia's past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia's future, the Islamists. I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier." Human rights investigator.

The Company He Keeps, reported by Mark Davis and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 3rd July at 8.30pm EDT. It is replayed on Tuesday 4th July at 10.00am and Wednesday 5th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC NEWS channel on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

'The Company He Keeps'

EMMA ALBERICI: Welcome to 4 Corners, I'm Emma Alberici.

It was one of the more bizarre moments in the lead-up to Donald Trump becoming president.

At a press conference at Trump Tower in New York to pledge loyalty to the Republican Party, Donald Trump appeared flanked by VIPs from Indonesia, and made a big show of announcing a special guest.

Setya Novanto is the speaker of the Indonesian parliament.

He was later embroiled in a massive corruption scandal, accused of soliciting a multi-billion-dollar bribe from the Freeport mining company.

At the time, it was a mystery as to why the Indonesians were in New York at all, and why Mr Trump was making such a fuss of them.

Now a 4 Corners investigation has discovered that at the same time Trump was running for the presidency, he was courting the Indonesians over lucrative resort deals in Bali and Java and lobbying Indonesian MPs to expedite a toll road that would benefit his development.

The secretive dealings raise new questions about Trump's corporate interests abroad, and about the unholy business and political alliances he's forged.

While at home, Trump rails against Muslim extremists, in Australia's nearest neighbour and the world's largest Muslim country his allies are cosying up to Islamists who pose a direct threat to the country's democracy.

Mark Davis has this report.

MARK DAVIS: Whatever sideshows the presidency may deliver, the Trump hotel and real estate brand rolls on.

The bags are packed and Donald Trump, his children and their brassy brand are heading to Bali.

Donald Trump has entered into two huge deals in Indonesia and the first of them will land here on the southern edge of Bali.

Almost on top of one of the island's most sacred religious sites, Tanah Lot.

An hour or two away from the main tourist areas, the Balinese have fought for decades to protect this temple and its surrounds.

RIO HELMI, PHOTOJOURNALIST: It's one of the island-wide temples that are sacred to the Balinese.

It's the sea, it's the land, tanah, lautan for ocean.

It's the earth, the island in the ocean.

NEWS READER: 'Trump Hotel and MNC Group'

MARK DAVIS: The site currently has a hotel and golf course on it but they sit lightly on a huge block of coastal land.

Not much is known of Trump's plans, but what is known is that he wants it big - the biggest in Bali he says.

He wants a tower on an island that bans them.

And he wants it overlooking the sacred Tanah Lot.

ACTOR'S VOICE: Trump International Hotel and Tower Bali.

The luxurious resort will be the largest and most integrated lifestyle resort destination in Bali.

Built atop a sheer cliff along a sweeping coastline, the development will offer breathtaking views of the Indian Ocean and Tanah Lot, the most popular tourist and cultural icon of Bali.

MARK DAVIS: It all sounds very glamorous but it would also be in total breach of the island's building codes to put a tower on top of this cliff and a slap in the face to its religion.

SHAYNA: Well our beautiful caddies just told us that Trump, this is now going to be a Trump facility.

And he's basically everything that's here that is absolutely beautiful and stunning, he's revamping it and making it a Trump empire.

I was telling Gerard that if this was a Trump, if this was owned by Trump right now I wouldn't be playing here.

MARK DAVIS: Might be your last game of golf here.

SHAYNA: We are still lucky we got here before he had his stamp on it.

MARK DAVIS: The old hotel is being shut down this month, hundreds of Balinese workers laid off and the demolition crews are moving in.

Donald Trump's Indonesian partner is billionaire media mogul Hary Tanoe.

ANNOUNCER: This is the biggest event Indonesia has ever hosted.

Thanks to Mr Hary Tanoe.

MARK DAVIS: Like Trump, Tanoe sponsors beauty pageants, plays the real estate game hard, and has major political ambitions.

It seems Tanoe and Trump are made for each other.

Tanoe apparently also gets on well with the Trump children who are all involved in the Bali project.

HARY TANOESOEDIBJP, Chairman and CEO, MNC Group [January 2017]: Each of them has different role.

Donald Jr., is responsibilities for the overall project.

Eric is more on the design and golf and Ivanka is more on the detail, like the fit out, you know, of the hotel.

MARK DAVIS: As they are about to demolish the existing hotel Trump and Tanoe presumably are confident they have approval to rebuild on this site…. but no one on the island seems to have seen the proposal.

How many villas will be on the land? how close to the temple? how big the tower will be? If anything has been approved it has been done very privately and very quietly.

The local government is saying nothing.

For a week, we requested an interview with the local governor or Bupati.

MARK DAVIS: Ebu Eka, Mark Davis ABC TV.

EBU EKA WIRYASTUTI, BUPATI OF TABANAN: Maybe next time

MARK DAVIS: Well whens next time? I really need to speak to you about the Trump Towers.

Balinese politicians aren't normally shy about extolling the virtues of new developments in their regions.

MARK DAVIS: Are the plans public?

EBU EKA WIRYASTUTI: We can't talk to press.

No, we can't talk about the topic.

I can't talk.

Or about the

MARK DAVIS: But you're the government, who can talk.

EBU EKA WIRYASTUTI: I can't.

I can't.

MARK DAVIS: So, it's a Trump investment and you can't talk?

EBU EKA WIRYASTUTI: No Sorry.

MARK DAVIS: This is, that's shocking you can't talk! This is in your area!

EBU EKA WIRYASTUTI: No but we can't talk.

Sorry.

MARK DAVIS: There are many things that can't be spoken of in Bali it seems - including the dark history going back decades about how the resort land was obtained at Tanah lot.

I'm at Seseh Beach just down from where the new Trump Hotel will soon be rising.

People around here tell me that last year a jumble of skeletons came tumbling out of that wall behind me when it was being rebuilt.

Victims of a massacre that people are still too intimidated to talk about.

Secrets like one abound in Bali, secrets about murders and secrets about how resort lands were acquired thereafter.

All around Bali bones of the recent past commonly resurface.

Sometimes history can't be completely buried.

West of Tanah Lot another gruesome discovery has been made.

Six bodies have just been removed from this beach.

Bone fragments are being gathered so they can be properly cremated.

Victims of a massacre that occurred during General Suharto's bloody coup in 1965.

MARK DAVIS: So, you say there a hundred bodies buried along this beach.

I PUTU BAWA USADI: Yes.

MARK DAVIS: One hundred?

KARYADI: More than a hundred…

MARK DAVIS: I'm taken to meet with one of the villagers who witnessed and participated in the killings at the beach... 85-year-old, Ketut Wedra…

MARK DAVIS: At the beach, how many people were killed at the beach?

KETUT WEDRA: More than thirty.

The police machine gunned them.

MARK DAVIS: Machine gun? Police machine gun? Machine gun on the beach?

Take them to the beach and machine gunned?

KETUT WEDRA: On the beach, it was with machine guns.

s
Others were killed in their houses then taken by cart to the beach during the day.

The machine gun killing was at night time.

MARK DAVIS: 80,000 people were murdered on Bali by Suharto's troops or supporters, a huge number for a small island, the victims broadly accused of being leftists or communists.

KETUT WEDRA: 'Cut, Cut here.'

MARK DAVIS: They were killed with complete impunity but Ketut's next admission is still stunning.

KETUT WEDRA: The police always accompanied me, and ordered me to kill.

I was the killer.

MARK DAVIS: How did you kill them? Were their hands tied, were they fighting? How did you kill them?

KETUT WEDRA: Their hands were tied, when it was time to kill them.

Like that.

They were already tied up from the street, then pushed down, then chop.

At the time, they'd already surrendered.

MARK DAVIS: This is a souvenir for you?

KETUT WEDRA: Yes.

I kept it as a souvenir.

MARK DAVIS: After the massacres and terror the ordinary farmers of Bali were ripe for the picking when Suharto's children and close associates came to take their lands for resorts.

Ketut Djarsanda was one of the original owners of the rice fields where the Trump development will soon stand.

KETUT DJARSANDA: Every day I just go for a walk with my buffalo.

MARK DAVIS: He was forced off his hereditary land in the mid 1990's at the height of the dictatorship of President Suharto.

The army told him that his land was needed for a government project.

KETUT DJARSANDA: So, the military and everything come to my home, yeah.

MARK DAVIS: The military came to your home and said they want the land?

KETUT DJARSANDA: I mean, you have to lend the lands.

MARK DAVIS: You have to sell the land.

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah, you have to sell the land and then.

MARK DAVIS: It was a dangerous time to resist whatever the military or government asked for, but Ketut still refused to sell his ancestral land…others began to cave in to the intimidation.

Piece by piece he found himself stranded as his neighbours gave in.

MARK DAVIS: So, your land was within the Tanah Lot.

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah, in the Bakri area now, inside.

MARK DAVIS: Inside? So, you did not want to sell but you were surrounded then.

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah.

MARK DAVIS: So, no road in or

KETUT DJARSANDA: No.

MARK DAVIS: No road? You couldn't get

KETUT DJARSANDA: No road, no road, yeah.

MARK DAVIS: And the water, they stopped the water is that what you said?

KETUT DJARSANDA: Because all thing is behind of me, already sell the land so of course I didn't have any water for the rice field.

MARK DAVIS: They cut the water?

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah, they cut the water.

MARK DAVIS: So, your rice dies, you can't grow rice?

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah, I couldn't make the rice.

MARK DAVIS: This is now part of the Trump Hotel?

KETUT DJARSANDA: Yeah, inside.

MARK DAVIS: He doesn't return often.

There's little to return to.

But his ancestral home is somewhere around the 5th green.

KETUT DJARSANDA: Impossible.

What I'm telling you because on that time, they have the big, big power.

MARK DAVIS: The government wants it

KETUT DJARSANDA: Big, big power, like that.

Sell it, like that.

MARK DAVIS: The resistance of Ketut and other farmers turned to anger when it was learnt that the land acquisition wasn't for a government project at all … it was for a resort for the Bakrie corporation, owned by one of Suharto's closest friends and business associates.

The farmers' demonstrations to save Tanah Lot were one of the rare public protest movements of the Suharto era.

RIO HELMI: There were all kinds of ploys used.

There were all kinds of ploys used.

That was really when the protests started… because they realised that there was manipulation going on, they realised there was coercion going on.

MARK DAVIS: The Bakrie corporation succeeded in parcelling up all of the farmers' land and they sold it to Trump's partner Hary Tanoe, through his MNC Group, in 2013.

As Trump was inaugurated as President in January one of his honoured guests was his Indonesian partner Hary Tanoe.

HARY TANOESOEDIBJO: I was invited to all of them.

From yesterday the welcome concert, the swearing-in today.

MARK DAVIS: Tanoe was a mid-level financier who had a meteoric rise at the end of the 1990's.

In dealing with Tanoe, Donald Trump may be buying into more than just Suharto era land

MARK DAVIS: I'm interested in that period as Suharto was sliding down, Hary Tanoe is riding up.

Is that a coincidence?

ANDREAS HARSONO, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INDONESIA:

It was not a coincidence because again, Hary Tanoe was a close friend, a close ally of Bambang Suharto since before the fall of Suharto.

After the patriarch stepped down from power, many of these children businesses and cronies, they needed trustees.

If not, they are in ... You know, they cannot face journalist.

Every time they appear in public, journalist will ask them a question, so they cannot do things, they cannot run their businesses.

MARK DAVIS: A lot of them left the country if I remember correctly.

When President Suharto finally exited power in 1998 he took three decades of loot with him.

State monopolies in oil, media, transport, food, and resources were placed into the hands of immediate family members and close associates.

WIMAR WITOELAR, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Suharto's money is estimated anywhere between 20 and 30 billion US dollars.

Widely recognised as the largest stash of money ever accumulated by a dictator in the third world.

Even Marcos, who was quite infamous, is estimated to have only five billion.

Suharto's money is of that amount.

We demonstrated as an activist.

We tried to get the money back.

In fact, we tried to have a total regime change.

It didn't work.

Suharto's people are still around.

Welcome back listeners of 'New Perspective' across the archipelago.

MARK DAVIS: Wimar Witoelar was a key advisor in 1999 to reforming President Gus Dur who tried to recover the Suharto money.

WIMAR WITOELAR: Even after Suharto was gone; his money is still there.

We never succeeded in repatriating his money.

It's there in the hands of his family and cronies, to which Harry Tanoe later was accepted.

He's one of the people who ran Suharto's funds.

Little by little became trusted and, particularly with one of Suharto's more active and ambitious sons, became a partner to use the billions, which heretofore had never been deployed in Indonesian public life.

ANDREAS HARSONO: Basically, after the fall of Suharto, all parties in Indonesia were using three companies to mobilise power.

MARK DAVIS: For decades, Andreas Harsono, currently head of Human Rights Watch Indonesia, has investigated and exposed the abuses of the Suharto regime, and its backers.

Well, what is the link between, uh, Hary Tanoe and the Suhartos? What was the relationship?

ANDREAS HARSONO: The middle son of President Suharto.

Bambang Suharto basically appointed Hary Tanoe to run his first businesses, especially his media companies.

The media companies also own mostly, major shareholder by Bambang Suharto.

MARK DAVIS: So, you're saying Bambang Suharto is a major investor in Hary Tanoes companies?

ANDREAS HARSONO: Yes.

MARK DAVIS: So, Mr. Trump, uh, is actually doing deals with the Suharto money basically.

ANDREAS HARSONO: Basically, Donald Trump is dealing with the Suhartos money.

By dealing with Hary Tanoe, uh, Donald Trump is basically dealing with the Suhartos.

MARK DAVIS: Tanoe's exact relationship to Bambang and his billions is unlikely to ever be revealed in Indonesia's opaque corporate regime but there is no indication that Bambang is an investor in any current real estate ventures.

Public records at least indicate that Bambang has sold down his shares in Tanoe companies.

Harry Tanoe has had multiple dealings with Suharto family money and companies.

A recent legal dispute with the eldest daughter, Tutut, has shone some light on the structure of those deals.

Hary Tanoe declined an interview for Four Corners, but has long denied that he is disguising funds or investments for Bambang Suharto.

Tutut owned one of Indonesia's biggest TV stations - courtesy of a public broadcaster license she obtained while her father was President.

Her private ownership embarrassingly overt after his demise.

Hary Tanoe appeared to buy the TV station from her in 2002- but not so according to Tutut in a recent court case.

True ownership was meant to be held for her.

MARK DAVIS: Was that the arrangement, that he'd hold it for her and give it back to her?

HARRY PONTO, LAWYER TO SITI 'TUTUT' HARDIYANTI RUKMANA: He tried to find another way.

MARK DAVIS: Tutut's lawyer, Harry Ponto, says that Tanoe was entrusted under a power of attorney to protect her assets.

Tutut maintains that Tanoe used those side agreement powers to take her wealth, not hold it.

HARRY PONTO: He will do whatever to keep that company.

MARK DAVIS: Are Tutut's hands clean in this deal? Is it an arrangement gone wrong?

HARRY PONTO: Tutut's still fighting.

MARK DAVIS: Still fighting.

HARRY PONTO: Yeah, still fighting until now.

That's what the order to us.

MARK DAVIS: Tanoe took control of Tutut's TV station, rebranding it MNC TV and has used it well to build his public profile and his political connections.

Connections that came in handy when he arranged senior Indonesian politicians to meet his new business partner.

September 2015, Donald Trump had signed on to Tanoe's Bali deal but was holding off on a second even bigger transaction.

MAN: Ladies and gentlemen the next president of the united states, Mr Donald J Trump.

MARK DAVIS: At a press conference to push his claim for the Republican nomination, some noted a curious number of Indonesians in the background.

At the end of the conference Trump returned to explain.

DONALD TRUMP: Hey ladies and gentlemen this is a very, an amazing man.

He is as you know right, Speaker of the House of Indonesia, he's here to see me.

MARK DAVIS: Until now it's been a mystery what the Indonesians were there for, but one of them, Fadli Zon who is deputy speaker of the Indonesian parliament, has agreed to speak with Four Corners to clarify what was discussed at Trump Tower.

FADLI ZON, DEPUTY SPEAKER OF INDONESIAN PARLIAMENT: Very warm, very warm and talkative, very excited you know.

So, he's very energetic.

MARK DAVIS: Fadli agrees that Hary Tanoe helped set the meeting up.

FADLI ZON: By the assistant of Hary Tanoe

MARK DAVIS: That business not politics was the point of the discussion.

And that none of them were expecting to confront a wall of cameras capturing their private visit.

FADLI ZON: We, we didn't expect so many people downstairs after that, you know, in the lobby uh, with the press and

MARK DAVIS: Many cameras

FADLI ZON: Many cameras and of course uh, after the press conference it was noisy in Indonesia, Indonesian politics.

Yeah.

DONALD TRUMP: Setya Novotno, one of the most powerful men and a great man, and his whole group is here to see me today and…

MARK DAVIS: Alarm bells rang in Indonesia when Setya Novanto's face flashed on the screen a man repeatedly investigated on corruption charges.

BOYAMIN SAIMAN, ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWYER: Setya Novanto's reputation in his career is as a broker.

MARK DAVIS: So, he's like a middle man

BOYAMIN SAIMAN: Yes, so he's the broker, the liaison man who profits from the process of government-related business.

MARK DAVIS: Boyamin Saiman is head of the Indonesian Anti- Corruption group, MAKI.

MARK DAVIS: So how many cases or major investigations have you conducted?

BOYAMI SAIMAN: From 12 to 15 cases.

MARK DAVIS: And how many have involved Setya Novanto?

BOYAMIN SAIMAN: Five cases, it's around five cases that I have handled.

MARK DAVIS: It is a serious breach of the Indonesian government codes for parliamentary delegations to meet with business people without authority from the executive…and this meeting was not authorised.

DONALD TRUMP, SEPTEMBER 2015: We will do great things for the United States.

Is that correct?

SETYA NOVANTO: Yes.

Donald Trump: Do they like me in Indonesia?

SETYA NOVANTO: Yes, I like... Thank you very much.

DONALD TRUMP: Speaker of the House of Indonesia.

Thank you very much.

MARK DAVIS: Donald Trump may have been correct that the Indonesians he met seemed to like him, but it may not have been 'great things for the United States' that were being discussed.

Fadli Zon recalls only one specific topic at the meeting - it was about a possible toll road to a Hary Tanoe property that Donald Trump was interested in.

A toll road, remarkably, that was to be in Fadli's own electorate of Bogor…

FADLI ZON: But then he said he really understood well about the situation.

For example, this theme park in Bogor area that needs some highway something like that because sometimes it's impossible to go there... he's saying that it's impossible without the toll road

MARK DAVIS: A toll road had been mooted to the Bogor region for years but it had totally stalled.

So, it makes it possible to do, to do a development and have an investment.

FADLI ZON: Yeah.

Exactly, yeah.

MARK DAVIS: Just one week after he met with the Indonesian politicians Donald Trump concluded his deal on the Bogor land with Hary Tanoe.

Two months later Setya Novanto became embroiled in a multi-billion-dollar bribery scandal involving an international mining company - and unfortunately for him that meeting was taped, and played in court.

SETYA NOVANTO, IN RECORDING: 10 per cent to be paid in dividends.

So as a loan but paid in cash in dividends… so that's the strategy you see.

MARK DAVIS: Remarkably Setya survived the scandal by claiming he'd been 'just joking'.

The land that Tanoe and Trump have done their deal on will be at Lido, Bogor in the hills behind Jakarta, on the edge of one of Java's last virgin forests.

They are in the final stages of securing 3000 hectares, some of it state land, other sections belonging to traditional small-scale farmers.

So, this valley here, this is Tanoe land?

RAJIB: Mostly, Hary Tanoe land

MARK DAVIS: Tanoe and trump, Tanoe and Trump.

RAJIB: Ahh yes.

MARK DAVIS: The families of these young men have lived and farmed in these hills for generations.

So, all this land belongs to Tanoe.

RAJIB: Yes

MARK DAVIS: So there's many valleys in this land all these villages.

RAJIB: Yes

MARK DAVIS: How many people?

RAJIB: I think maybe… 200 households.

MARK DAVIS: So maybe a thousand people so they go once the resort starts

RAJIB: Yes

MARK DAVIS: Land agents working for Tanoe's company have been buying pockets of land off farmers for years.

Those who have held on are now surrounded by Tanoe land and they know they are about to be swamped by the Tanoe Trump project.

What is being planned here almost defies description.

Part theme park, part golf course, resort and residential development with a Formula 1 racetrack somewhere amongst it all.

RAJIB: The Hary Tanoe project is going to be a huge one, a mega project.

And the forest here is one of the largest in Java.

Rajib and his friend Taufik take me up the hills likely to be soon swathed in villas, to the adjoining National Park.

MARK DAVIS: The park is one of the few large forests left on Java and it is home to one of the rarest animals on the planet…

RAJIB: This is where the spotted leopard can be seen.

MARK DAVIS: In here?

RAJIB: Yes.

This is the leopards' habitat.

MARK DAVIS: The Javan Leopard is almost extinct.

It is notoriously sensitive to all human activity and noise - presumably that includes waterslides, Formula 1 racing and probably the mooted sky train that is being planned from the resort across their forest.

RAJIB: When the investment power of Trump comes here, we who've lived here for decades can do nothing.

Because their great wealth gives them enormous influence.

MARK DAVIS: But it is not just the extinction of the spotted leopard that is worrying Taufik.

His father is being pressured by land dealers to sell his house and farmland… it will be almost impossible to farm it when adjoining rice fields disappear.

TAUFIK: I don't know, I don't know if we will be evicted or our houses destroyed.

We don't know where we would move.

So, we're filled with anxiety over the future, we don't know.

MARK DAVIS: Beyond the theme park glitz the real financial heart of the Lido development lies in its potential as residential real estate.

Jakarta lies only 70 kilometres away but the jammed roads make it an unfeasible two-hour trip, three on a bad day.

But that should soon be a thing of the past.

Today the toll road is punching forward into the hills with an offshoot spiralling off and landing almost directly at the entrance of the Trump/Tanoe property.

MARK DAVIS: Fadli Zon estimates that Trump and Tanoe have tripled their money with the toll road.

FADLI ZON: Yeah.

I think the price increase like three times.

MARK DAVIS: Really?

FADLI ZON: Three times.

DONALD TRUMP 2016: Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

MARK DAVIS: As Trump was sharpening his electoral message last year, another election campaign was unfolding in Indonesia.

Jakarta was gripped in a tumultuous and at times violent campaign to oust the governor who was a Christian of Chinese descent.

His opponents claimed that a Christian should not be able to lead Muslims.

And claimed he blasphemed when he said that the Koran did not prohibit Muslims from voting for him.

Remarkably Hary Tanoe, himself a Christian, joined the campaign against the governor, a campaign driven by former general and Suharto son in law, Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo is banned from travelling to the United States for human rights abuses during his military career.

He is also the politician most likely to reap the harvest of the new wave of fundamentalist Islamic politics that has been unleashed in Indonesia in recent years.

WIMAR WITOELAR: Now Tanoe is very strongly standing on the side of Prabowo to supply the operations cash, and also to position himself as a possible vice-presidential candidate because It's taken for granted that Prabowo will make a grab for the presidency in one way or another.

Now, Hary is not a politically astute person, but he has enough common sense to use his money where it could be useful.

MARK DAVIS: Prabowo's party deputy is Fadli Zon.

WIMAR WITOELAR: Well so far, we are in alliance, since last uh, presidential election.

Uh, because we are uh, we had this uh, Merah Putih coalition, red and white coalition and Hary Tanoe was part of the coalition uh, at the time.

So, I think we still have some uh, historical connection, (laughs) and political connection because of that and so of course, uh, from my party, from Gerindra party, we will propose Prabowo to be the next president in 2019.

We don't know the vice president, we will see.

MARK DAVIS: For decades Indonesia has been portrayed as the model of a pluralistic and tolerant Muslim nation.

But that dynamic is changing.

Hardcore Islamic politics entered the political mainstream this year during the campaign against the governor.

And that is just the beginning according to some of the groups who drove the protests throughout the election like Hizbut Tahrir

MARK DAVIS: Is your ambition to implement Sharia law in Indonesia?

ISMAIL YUSANTO, SPOKESPERSON, HIZBUT TAHRIR INDONESIA: This is our duty, not our ambition.

It is our duty.

Religious duty.

Yes, clear.

MARK DAVIS: And will you succeed?

ISMAIL YUSANTO: We hope and we will try hard.

MARK DAVIS: Hard?

ISMAIL YUSANTO: Yes.

MARK DAVIS: The government doesn't take too kindly to groups proposing Sharia law in the current highly charged political environment and has moved to ban Hizbut Tahrir….

ISMAIL YUSANTO: Fadli Zon help us and he give an official statement.

MARK DAVIS: but they still have some friends in high places.

MARK DAVIS: So Fadli Zon is a supporter of-

ISMAIL YUSANTO: Yes, yes, yes.

Support us, yes.

MARK DAVIS: During the election Fadli Zon was centre stage at rallies where extremist speakers urged the banning of Christians from politics.

MARK DAVIS: But you didn't condemn that campaign, did you? In this ... In that election, in the Governors election, you never said ...

FADLI ZON: Yeah, yeah, of course, why should I? I mean, that's uh, their aspiration.

MARK DAVIS: Because its…

FADLI ZON: No.

That's…

MARK DAVIS: Because it's the responsible and fair thing to do, to ...

FADLI ZON: No.

That's uh, their aspiration.

Our aspiration is to ...

MARK DAVIS: Is to win.

FADLI ZON: Is to win and ...

MARK DAVIS: What about Mr Prabowo, did he, did he uh, condemn?

FADLI ZON: No.

MARK DAVIS: Fadli, Prabowo and Hary Tanoe celebrated together when the Governor lost the election in April.

The governor has since been sent to prison for his alleged blasphemy… 2 years.

MARK DAVIS: Hary Tanoe is hoping to replicate Donald Trump's political success but his Christian religion may now be a liability.

Now Tanoe seems to be working on a more suitable public image…

HARY TANOESOEDIBJO: Happy viewers we would like to wish you Happy Idul Fitri.

MARK DAVIS: His Miss World phase might be coming to an end.

HARY TANOESOEDIBJO: May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you.

MARK DAVIS: When Donald Trump signed on with Hary Tanoe it's likely his only interest in Indonesia was its property values.

But other values are now at stake.

President Donald Trump says his Indonesian businesses will now be in the hands of his children.

He may step back a little now from the companies he owns but not from the company he keeps.

ANDREAS HARSONO: Well, I'm not going to say Donald Trump is unethical man, but he is dealing with the worst of Indonesia's past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia's future, the Islamist.

I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier.

This is going to be a messier place.

EMMA ALBERICI: Last week, the Indonesian government banned Hary Tanoe from travelling abroad, due to an investigation into allegations that he sent a threatening text message to a prosecutor who was looking into one of his former companies.

Tanoe denies it and says the accusations are politically motivated.

Next week, Sarah Ferguson will be back, and will bring you a brave and inspiring film about a growing epidemic in Australia: dementia… a disease affecting an increasing number of Australians.

We take you into the lives of some of those living with dementia and the families supporting them, as they share their hopes, fears and plans for the future.

We'll leave you with this preview.

Goodnight.

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First posted July 3, 2017 17:59:00

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