This short story was written in early 1991, at the golden era of the New Order (Orde Baru).

(see: http://sepercik.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/ngarai/)

The term manunggal was then dubbed to the Army's initiative called AMD (ABRI Masuk Desa - loosely translated into: Armed Forces Develop Villages).

In the post-"Reformasi" of 1998, when the police force was separated from the ABRI, the program was renamed into TMMD (TNI Masuk Desa).

The term referred to by Ria, "Manunggal Sakato", emerged later, IMHO, some time after the year of 2000.

(See: Manunggal Sakato IX was in 2011, http://www.antarasumbar.com/id/berita/pilkada/d/3/173831/man... whilst Manunggal Sakato X was launched just last month: http://www.barito-minang.com/2012/10/manunggal-sakato-x-tahu... )

Considering the fact that manunggal was not a program name in 1991, but rather a kind of buzzword (that is, "ABRI manunggal dengan rakyat" - the Armed Forces is inseparable from the people), I proposed Army-sponsored to reflect this fact. In fact, most initiative, resources, money came from the Armed Forces - they just asked villagers to show that they were really "manunggal" with the people.

Note: Majority of the soldiers deployed were from the Army. The Navy were deployed to villages near beach, and the Air Force were far less utilized.

The below link may give more insight to this manunggal:

Ref: http://www.kodam-mulawarman.mil.id/profil/satuan/batalyon/de...
c. Tugas AMD dan AMR.

.....

2. Dasar Surat Telegram Pangdam VI/Mlw No: STR/396/1990 tanggal 11 Juli 1990 tentang perintah BKO personel Denzipur 7 Dam VI/Tpr guna mendukung AMD manunggal ke XXXV (Tmt 10 Agustus s.d 2 September 1990), hasil yang dicapai :

a.Pembuatan jalan sepanjang 10 km lebar 6 meter.



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Note added at 2 hrs (2012-11-02 07:41:46 GMT)
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erratum:

... they just asked people to take part to show that ....