ANTARA, 07/04/07
Ambon incident shows govt yet to root out separatism: observer
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Last Friday's incident in the eastern Indonesian city of
Ambon, Maluku, has shown that the government has yet to root out separatism
across the country, Bonni Hargens, a political observer at the University of Indonesia,
said here on Tuesday.
"Our government has failed to root out various separatist groupings in the country
such as the OPM (Free Papua Organization) and RMS (Republic of South Maluku))
movement," Bonni said. Bonni made the statement in commenting on the waving of
an RMS flag in front of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when the head of state
was attending a function to observe the 14th National Family Day (Harganas) at
Ambon's Merdeka square last Friday. During the observance, RMS supporters
suddenly appeared at the function and performed an unscheduled "cakalele" (war)
dance in front of the president before security personnel stopped them. According to
Bonni, the issue of separatism had continued to resurface because economic and
social development in the regions had yet to be carried out in a just manner.
"Regional autonomy has merely been a discourse because what happens in the field
is distribution of authority instead of prosperity," Bonni said. He said the government
had so far tried to overcome various separatist movements by force of arms or through
the military approach. "In reality, the real problem the government has to overcome is
equal distribution of development through a civilian approach," he said, adding that the
"cakalele" incident in Ambon war dance in Ambon should induce the government to
ponder a better way to address the core of the issues than the military approach.
In addition, he said, the government should be aware that the incident could be a
political scenario of certain parties to disturb the upcoming 2009 general elections. "It
could also be a scenario of people in the government's inner circle who have certain
political objectives in the next general elections," he said, adding that the State
Intelligence Agency (BIN) should immediately find accurate information on why the
incident took place.
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