Asia Times, Nov 3, 2004
Ba'asyir trial: Wrong war, wrong place
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - As he faces a second trial on terrorism charges, Muslim cleric
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir has taken on symbolic value far beyond his real importance. To
the West, Indonesia's handling of Ba'asyir, the alleged head of the Jemaah Islamiah
(JI) terror group, is a crucial indicator of Indonesia's commitment to fighting terrorism.
But putting Ba'asyir on trial at the West's insistence makes it harder for Indonesia to
confront more important facets of its terrorism problem.
Ba'asyir went back on trial last week on terrorism and conspiracy charges in
connection with the October 2002 Bali bombings and the September 2003 JW
Marriott Hotel blast in Jakarta, both blamed on the JI. The prosecution's indictment
claims Ba'asyir visited a JI training camp in the southern Philippines in 2000, where
he passed along an order to fighters from al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden inciting
"waging of war against, and the killing of, Americans and their allies," according to the
65-page document read in court last Thursday.
Ba'asyir also allegedly gave his blessing to the Bali bombings that killed 202 people,
most of them Western tourists. He is the co-founder of the Pondok Ngruki Islamic
boarding school that sports numerous links to the Bali bombers. Ba'asyir could face
the death penalty if convicted.
Wirawan Adnan, an attorney for Ba'asyir, calls the prosecution's charges "ridiculous",
dismissing them as "repeated circumstances, repeated conditions of [Ba'asyir's]
previous trial".
Cushy custody?
Despite criticism that Indonesia has been soft on Ba'asyir, the 66-year-old cleric has
been in custody since the week after the Bali bombings. Last year, he was acquitted
of terrorism charges - prosecutors reportedly presented a laughably weak case - but
found guilty of plotting to overthrow the government. That conviction was overturned on
appeal, and Ba'asyir's prison term for immigration violations was sliced in half. When
that sentence expired on May 1, Ba'asyir enjoyed seconds of freedom before police
rearrested him for questioning in connection with these latest charges.
But that's not enough for some. Singapore's minister mentor and founding father,
former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, wrote in his column for Forbes magazine
discussing presidential elections in Indonesia:
The feared electoral strength of the Muslim extremist group Jemaah Islamiah
(responsible for the bombings in Bali) did not warrant the government's kid-glove
handling of Abu Bakar Baasyir [sic], the group's spiritual leader. In Indonesia only
those terrorists directly involved in bombings are prosecuted; their religious mentors
are left untouched, even though they are the most crucial part of the terror chain.
Because of this, madrassas (religious schools) that teach and promulgate extremist
Islam continue to spawn new generations of suicide bombers.
Little, old knife maker
Ba'asyir admits proudly, "I've made a lot of knives" with his teachings of the Koran,
which as he interprets it, includes sharply anti-American, anti-Israeli views. But
Ba'asyir claims he has never stabbed anyone, and no one has presented credible
evidence directly linking him to violence. (He blames the US Central Intelligence
Agency and Israeli intelligence for the World Trade Center and Bali attacks).
Many of the allegations against Ba'asyir arise from Western intelligence interrogation
of captured al-Qaeda operatives. Cheerleaders for Ba'asyir's conviction tend to
uncritically accept the word of terror suspects in custody telling captors what they
want to hear while disregarding uncoerced statements to the contrary.
It's no surprise that Singapore's Lee wants Ba'asyir convicted of thought crimes for his
preaching. By Lee's way of thinking, if a rapist reads Playboy magazine, then Hugh
Hefner deserves caning (and, perhaps, those naughty playmates, too). Singapore
didn't get where it is by valuing free speech, an independent judiciary or disabusing its
founding father of his Confucian conviction of infallibility.
That concept of justice may fly in Singapore, but it is ironic to see the United States
and its allies applying pressure to punish Ba'asyir while insisting freedom and
democratic values need to be nurtured around the world as the real antidote to terror.
In Indonesia, it's particularly troubling for Westerners to endorse the habit of political
interference in the judiciary. One of the few places where the interests of Indonesian
democracy advocates and foreign investors converge is the promotion of independent
courts. However, when Westerners think it's in their interest, as in the case of
Ba'asyir - and the alleged pollution of Buyat Bay (see In Indonesia, all that glisters is
not gold October 9) - they're quick to call for politicians to overrule judges.
"I asked the panel of judges and prosecutors to beware of efforts by the two enemies
of Allah - America and Australia - to interfere in this courtroom," Ba'asyir said at his
trial's opening session on Thursday. This public pressure from the West regarding
Ba'asyir is a bigger issue in Indonesia than his alleged ties to terrorism. After all, the
Marriott Hotel attack and September's bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta
took place while Ba'asyir was already behind bars.
The West's fixation on Ba'asyir reinforces Indonesian impressions that terrorism is a
Western problem and that the West's so-called "war on terrorism" is a war on Islam. It
creates sympathy for a figure whose views are not widely held among the Indonesian
public at large, and boosts his popularity, making Ba'asyir an underdog who defies the
West. That popular acceptance, in turn, makes it harder for responsible Indonesian
leaders to denounce the Islamic radical fringe without seeming to pander to the West.
Test cases, true and false
Media, such as Lee Kuan Yew's state-controlled hometown paper, compound the
error by characterizing Ba'asyir's trial as a test case for Indonesia's new President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Yet Ba'asyir's indictment predates the two-week-old
administration, so it's not responsible for whatever happens. If the West would stop
talking, it would make it easier for Yudhoyono to placate Muslim parties, which largely
support him, and their followers if the court convicts Ba'asyir.
If the West wants a test case for Yudhoyono, it need look no further than his
appointment to the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs portfolio
he held until March. Yudhoyono's successor as Indonesia's point man on terrorism is
former admiral Widodo A S. In the three years after Suharto's fall, Widodo was the
first chief of Indonesia's armed forces drawn from a service other than the army.
Widodo's otherwise undistinguished tenure was marked by the growth of
military-supported religious violence (see Terrorism links in Indonesia point to military
October 8). In defiance of presidential orders, the armed forces provided weapons and
other assistance to thousands of Muslim fighters in conflicts with Christians around
the archipelago. This support for religious radicals gave a mainstream platform to the
likes of Ba'asyir. Amid other military efforts to promote political destabilization under
former president Abdurrahman Wahid, support of jihad contributed to the spread of
lawlessness, encouraging bolder terror attacks.
Western governments, however, remain far more active and vocal in calling for the
scalps of those who wrap violence in Muslim robes and have killed hundreds than
those who wear military fatigues and have killed tens of thousands. No wonder
Indonesians think the war on terror is just a guise for a war on Islam.
The focus on Ba'asyir reflects the decision to attack Iraq: the West chose the wrong
target, then labeled it a central front in the war on terror, making that region and the
world at large more dangerous, and giving terrorists more fertile ground in which to
grow.
Gary LaMoshi, a longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, has also
contributed to Slate and Salon.com. He's worked as a broadcast producer and as a
print writer and editor in the United States and Asia. He moved to Hong Kong in 1995
and now splits his time between there and Indonesia.
Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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