Asia Times (atimes.com), December 19, 2001
Indonesia: A year of bloodshed and despair
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - A year ago it was not difficult to predict that Indonesia would remain
hostage to politics in 2001, but few predicted the stranglehold on progress would
reach such an acute level.
Akbar Tanjung, leader of the Golkar party, himself now very close to a deep and
searching probe into alleged abuse of funds for the poor, still had the high moral
ground when warning two days before Christmas that the escalating tension over
embattled then-president Abdurrahman Wahid, whose opponents were clamoring for
his resignation, would reach its peak in August - that is, during the 2001 annual
session of parliament. "If he [Wahid] doesn't change his attitude and style of
leadership, then I think we have a serious problem. He needs to be more focused,"
Akbar quipped.
The legislators were certainly focused, succeeding in sidelining their responsibilities
to the electorate by a concerted six-month campaign to get rid of Wahid at all costs.
In the midst of all the politicking, Indonesians were being bombed, murdered, and
abused in certain "hot spot" provinces and the aspirations of others were being
flattened by the no-compromise and no-holds-barred grip of Jakarta on some
provinces and its appeasement in others.
Wahid's diminutive, but dogged, minister of defense Mahfud Mohammad drew the
short straw to deliver the message that there would be no further negotiations with the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM) after the
expiration of the "humanitarian pause" on January 15. His comments followed Wahid's
brief visit to the troubled province a day earlier, during which he pledged a more
peaceful approach to resolving the Aceh issue, within the context of the unitary state
of Indonesia.
In Stockholm, GAM separatist leader Tengku Hasan di Tiro scoffed at Wahid's visit,
saying there was "no chance at all" that the visit would help stabilize the situation
there. "The problem is Indonesia," Hassan thundered. "Indonesia is not a country at
all, it is the empire of the Dutch." Sooner or later, Indonesia is bound to break up
"because the people ... want to go their separate ways", he said. "We want to go our
way."
In Jakarta, National Police spokesman Brigadier-General Saleh Saaf confirmed that
Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel were being trained by the army's Special Forces
(Kopassus) for guerrilla operations against the Acehnese rebels.
In the killing fields of Maluku, Muslims and Christians alike died in intercommunal
violence in a simmering but vicious conflict that has defied all attempts at a solution.
Multidimensional aspects where ethnic, economic and political rivalries ensure that
those who could bring salvation are more inclined, for their own reasons, to maintain
the status quo, have left the provincial government, let alone Jakarta, appear helpless
against the Laskar Jihad, whose continued presence is seen as the major factor in
inciting violence.
This is despite continued calls from Christian organizations and political parties for
United Nations Security Council intervention, as they see little chance that the
government's plan to impose either civilian, or military states of emergency will be
effective in easing tension, without a serious commitment to resolving the conflict. The
three-year conflict has perturbed many Indonesians who point to the fact that the
Spice Islands have not been, historically, a hotbed of religious strife and many others
claim the tension is the result of action by provocateurs trying to bring about
disintegration in Indonesia. They claim that certain national politicians and military
officers who had been displaced by the Wahid government are encouraging violence in
Maluku and elsewhere as a way to discredit and destabilize the current
administration. As the bloodshed in the region continues, and the Christian-Muslim
divide widens, the whole country is endangered.
The arrival in Maluku of members of the Java-based Laskar Jihad, a radical Muslim
organization that had been trained by the military and armed by them, sparked off a
Christian massacre of about 500 Muslim villagers at the end of December 1999.
Laskar Jihad remains the main source of continuing bloodshed and the group, also
active in various towns and cities in Java, has turned intermittent fighting between the
two communities in the Malukus into a Bosnia-style campaign of "religious
cleansing".
Jakarta has been singularly unsuccessful in overcoming the Laskar Jihad force, which
may be because they have been linked with sympathetic elements within the military
and partly because the government cannot appear to oppose a pro-Muslim force. The
military and police in Maluku have joined the fighting on both sides, although the
intervention of predominantly Muslim military personnel has more often, although
certainly not always, favored the Muslim militias.
Tens of thousands of Madurese refugees from Sampit, Central Kalimantan, now
housed in squalid refugee camps on Madura island, East Java, will be sent back to
their homes in Sampit. This followed the unbridled savagery in Sampit that started just
after midnight on February 18 when a group of Dayaks killed five Madurese in a house
there. Madurese retaliated by burning down a house containing a Dayak family. The
majority Madurese then "took control" of Sampit, killing up to 24 Dayaks and marched
the streets, flying banners with "Sampit is a Madurese town" and "Sampit is the
second Sampang" (a major town in Madura). Thousands of Dayaks and other
non-Madurese fled Sampit, spreading the news and sparking off the bloody revenge
that followed.
The Dayak "liberators" were hailed as heroes in Sampit and the Central Kalimantan
capital of Palangkaraya but the result was that more than 100,000 Madurese fled
Central Kalimantan province between then and April.
This ethnic cleansing and brutality horrified the world and was made worse by the
perception that the government's belated response to the savagery indicated an
astonishing insensitivy to the images of bodies with their heads sliced off and others
with entrails spilling out.
In Irian Jaya, Wahid, during a Christmas visit, confirmed that Jakarta would allow
"peaceful freedom of expression" in the province, but warned against any attempt to
secede from the republic. "I will allow the people here to freely express their opinions,
but if there is any attempt to declare independence in the province, I will take action
against it," Wahid said, adding that he had told the Irian Jaya police chief not to arrest
Papua Presidium Board (PDP) head Theys Hiyo Eluay. He and four other Irian Jaya
pro-independence activists from the Papuan Presidium Council were arrested prior to,
and after, the observance of the unrecognized 1961 declaration of independence for
Irian, also known as West Papua. In the end, Theys was murdered by a person or
persons unknown when returning to his home on the evening of November 10, when
being taken home by his driver Arisoteles after attending a celebration of Heroes' Day
at the Army's Special Force headquarters in the capital Jayapura.
Tensions in conflict-ridden Poso, Central Sulawesi, where an estimated 2,000 people
have been killed over the past two years, also remain high after last month's Supreme
Court rejection of appeals from three men sentenced to death for masterminding riots
there last year.
In August, after bombings at a Jakarta shopping mall, police seized guns, grenades
and ammunition at Jakarta residences that had been rented by Tommy Suharto.
In the same month, current President Megawati Sukarnoputri apologized to the
Acehnese and West Papuans for human-rights violations in the past, but four days
later, violence in Aceh during Independence Day "celebrations" saw widespread
rioting, bombing and several deaths. Four banks were bombed and as many as 60
schools were razed to the ground.
On the positive side, two men were sentenced to 20 years in prison each in
connection with the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing the previous September.
Megawati sent a delegation of cabinet ministers to Aceh to evaluate the situation
there - and a government exhibition on development in the capital Banda Aceh was
bombed and a local military commander assassinated.
In September, three days before Megawati visited Aceh for a meeting with community
leaders. The Rector of Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh was assassinated and
just after her meeting, the GAM kidnapped several community leaders and held them
at gunpoint for 24 hours.
Former vice president and retired General Try Sutrisno finally made an out-of-court
agreement with family members of victims of the Tanjung Priok slaughter of 1984.
Savagery outside Indonesian shores was to create a new problem for the government.
A week after the terrorist attacks on US soil, Megawati arrived in Washington on a
state visit. She condemned the September 11 attacks and US President George W
Bush immediately agreed to restore some military ties that had previously been
canceled over the issue of East Timor. He also pledged another US$150 million in aid
to Indonesia to support legal reforms, reconstruction and refugee assistance in
Maluku and Aceh, as well as for police training.
Back in Indonesia, however, the storm clouds were getting darker and big problems
were brewing for Megawati and her administration. On September 21, when Megawati
was still in the US, that country's Ambassador Robert Gelbard asked for police
protection for the US Embassy against anti-US demonstrations. Islamic radicals were
freely conducting "sweeps" for foreigners, particularly US citizens, threatening them if
they did not agree to leave the country. Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil told the
US ambassador to stop worrying as the safety of US citizens in Indonesia was
"guaranteed" by the government.
The following month, a cabinet meeting decided to prohibit excessive demonstrations
and acts of violence against foreigners, and to prohibit Indonesian citizens from joining
foreign military services at war. Jakarta expressed concern over the US actions in
Afghanistan, asking the United Nations to pay attention to humanitarian issues there.
Islamic fundamentalists for Laskar Jihad and other radical groups stepped up their
threats to attack US citizens on Indonesian soil.
After this, Vice President Hamzah Haz directly criticized the US actions in
Afghanistan and a day later, in a speech at Masjid Istiqlal, Megawati herself joined the
bandwagon by indirectly criticizing the US.
As well as the thousands of refugees from Kalimantan, thousands more from North
Maluku now in North Sulawesi will also be sent back to their homes. Some 5,000
families from refugee camps near Medan, North Sumatra, will be relocated to Riau to
work on palm-oil plantations and some 20,000 other displaced families from Poso,
Central Sulawesi, are to be transferred to the provincial capital Palu.
Finally, some 100,000 East Timorese refugees currently in refugee camps in West
Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, will be gradually repatriated to East Timor. These
displaced persons currently cost Jakarta Rp2 billion ($197,000) and 520 tons of rice
just to cover their daily needs.
The fate of the economy and thus the well-being and prosperity of Indonesians closely
mirrored what was going on in the political arena. Democracy remained the loudly
trumpeted clarion call for the 630-odd legislators who, "in the name of the people",
tinkered with the 1945 constitution and ousted Wahid on July 23.
Three days later, Hamzah Haz, having fought off a power bid by Akbar Tanjung,
Golkar's leader, which had earlier said it would offer no candidate for vice president,
was selected vice president by the national assembly. Earlier that morning, Supreme
Court Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita was brutally assassinated by two gunmen on
motorcycles in central Jakarta, a crime for which the recently captured Tommy
Suharto is being investigated.
The Christmas period last year saw the rupiah stable at 9,315 to the US dollar, but in
2001, amid the feverish anti-Wahid political lobbying, it steadily weakened to 11,145
on the day Wahid was sent packing. The next day the local unit strengthened to
10,300, and in August went through 9,000, reaching its high of the year, 8,500, on
August 15. Unfortunately, by then the weaknesses of the new Gotong Royong (Mutual
Cooperation) cabinet had been exposed, and the rupiah steadily worsened, through a
temporary 12,200, to its current median of about 10,200 to the greenback.
Thus the second full year of democracy in Indonesia ends largely in despair and lack
of hope, far from the initial joy and hopes when the "experiment" started. The cause of
justice and freedom has advanced little, if at all.
In this land of shadows, dark forces, it seems, with unlimited resources of money and
willing minions to do the dirty work, strike and kill their fellow citizens with alarming
regularity. These unidentified and unstoppable big names are said to be concerned
that the "reformist" government will expose their past corruption and pillage of the
nation's coffers, demand restitution, and put them behind bars.
This is a very far-fetched possibility judging by the lack of success of a profoundly
weak attorney-general institution, where prosecutors are battered into submission at
every turn by highly paid, aggressive lawyers and a corruption-soaked judiciary.
The great experiment in democracy has left the poor and impoverished helplessly
watching the elitist rich grow richer and less caring, while the lot of the poor becomes
even more desperate. Widespread poverty, wholesale job losses, and a culture that
demands unofficial levies for almost every bureaucratic transaction ensure that the
poverty gap has become monumentally wide.
The capital Jakarta, with millions of its residents unemployed, is hit worst and is a
breeding ground for the worst excesses. Poverty, frustration and restlessness added
to despair have led to a vigilante culture. Mob lynchings and the burning to death of
suspected thieves are commonplace. Chunks of metropolitan Jakarta are "no-go"
areas where preman (thugs) backed by the military and police control every form of
business activity. High-school students continue to war with one another, causing
death and injury, and adding to the permeating fear of violence in Jakarta's steamy air.
There is certainly freedom of speech, but it has little, if any, meaning. The people
demanded reform across the board, but instead have seen politicians of all parties
singlemindedly fight their own causes, with scant attention paid to the needs of their
countrymen.
Will the widespread tragedies of 2001 cause a rethink? Will leadership replace
prevarication in 2002? Will concern for their countrymen replace the self-centered
greed of so many legislators?
So far, as this Christmas approaches, there are no signs of a repeat of last year's
concerted bombing campaign last Christmas Eve, which claimed a total of 133
victims: 14 were killed and 119 others were injured. A total of 38 bombs were found in
10 different cities. But all over Indonesia, families from all walks of life wait nervously
to see how 2002 will differ from the year drawing to a close. Will peace and
compassion replace terror?
©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. All rights
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