MALUKU CONSPIRACY Konspirasi Politik RMS dan Kristen Menghancurkan Ummat Islam diAmbon-Maluku (The political conspiracy of the RMS and Christian againts Muslims in Ambon-Maluku) By Brigadier General (R) Rustam Kastor 2000, Pages 312, Price Rupiah 30,000 Wihdah Press, Jalan Kusumanegara No. 98, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Tension still grips the Maluku provinces (islands) of Indonesia, where a violent conflict between Muslims and Christians has taken a toll of more than 17,000 people and made some 500,000 refugees as well as traumatised thousands of children who had witnessed the violence. The massacre of Muslims set the stage for yet another tragedy bedevilling the Abdur-Rahman Wahid government and one more challenge facing humanitarian non-governmental activists. The government's efforts to restore peace to the region have had no success. The reason for this failure --and for the frenzy of violence-- is what the author Brigadier General (R) Rustam Kastor unravels.

Unlike other observers who have offered different theses for the outbreak of violence that has dragged for 17 months, Rustam Kastor has dug at the local roots of the conflict. He points his finger at the separatist Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS) group. Its leader  --who enjoys the support of Christian groups both in the region and abroad-- has openly admitted to have funded the war. The author contends that the party enjoying the spoils of that war is the PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle); it is led by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is surrounded by Christian and nationalist secular elements.
The author's background lends weight to his contention. Born in Ambon on 9 July 1939, he rose to the position of a senior officer in both the Indonesian Military headquarters and in the regional military command in Maluku's neighbouring province of Irian Jaya/Papua. He was an eye witness to the violence in Maluku; his house was burnt down during one of the clashes.
The book points out three hot spots in the eastern region of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, where large scale violence has broken out time and again following almost a similar pattern; and from here specifically violence spread out to almost every part of the 1,027 island -region. The hot spots in question are:
--the provincial capital of Ambon & Central Maluku;
--Tual, Southeast Maluku;
--North Halmahera in North Maluku.
Unrest has always started with attacks by Christian mobs on enclaves where Muslims are the trapped minorities.
When the violence first broke out early last year, Abdur-Rahman Wahid --not then the president of Indonesia-- speculated in public that a certain 'Major General K' had provoked the unrest. When one major general demanded for an explanation, Abdur-Rahman Wahid retracted his remark, blaming instead 'Brig. Gen. K'. When Kastor demanded an explanation, he, again, failed to substantiate his speculation.
Now Kastor answers back [in his introduction]: 'I am writing to set the record straight, so the world knows that the Muslims have become victims of the radical movements of the (separatist) Republik Maluku Selatan (South Maluku Republic or RMS) and Christians in Ambon.'
The government has failed to curb the violence in Ambon and Maluku, Rustam Kastor says, because it has ignored the root cause of the problem. Separating the hostile parties, as the government did in Ambon, is not a solution for it offers a brief respite only: it is
palliative not a cure.
The 'root' is a 'political conspiracy' between the separatist Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS) and the Christian side to eliminate the Muslims in Maluku. Therefore, any attempt to end the violence would be futile unless the general public is aware of the conspiracy whose main aim is secession. The obstacle in the path of the secessionists are Muslims, who chose to support the Republic of Indonesia after securing independence in 1945 from Dutch colonial rule.
Even before the violence sparked off on 19 January 1999 the RMS heightened their activities. During some unruly demonstrations around Ambon on 16-18 November 1998, slogans were raised in support of the RMS separatist movement. Kastor points out documents have been found containing evidence of the separatist group's plan to sow unrest in order to undermine the Indonesian government and military. The separatist movement, according to him, has never really been quelled and its Christian leaders continue to dream of an independent Christian state.
One way of achieving that goal is by increasing the Christian percentage of the population in Maluku by purging the Muslims. Some of the attacks were against settlements of Muslims from Java and neighbouring Sulawesi provinces who tipped the balance of Christian-Muslim ratio. The task of Muslim cleansing suits the RMS, whose activists have hated the Muslims from the beginning.
Sponsored by the Dutch, the 'Puppet State' of Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS) was signed into being , by J M Manuhutu and A. Wairisal on 18 January 1950. Dr Soumokil made the announcement on 25 April 1950. However, they did not enjoy the support of the Muslim inhabitants who backed the authorities campaign against the separatist group, forcing it to go underground. Its leaders, including Soumokil, were arrested, but others survived; among them were some who took refuge in the Netherlands.
The debacle in East Timor, its eventual success in riding the wave of Indonesia's political reforms to secure independence, and the push for self determination by Aceh and Irian Jaya have apparently given a fresh fillip to the RMS elements to tread the same path. They argue their cause is more justifiable since they had first demanded independence as early as 1950.
In support of  his contention that the local branch of the ruling PDI-P of Megawati Sukarnoputri has profited from the violence, Kastor gives demographic statitics of Ambon. Its population of 311,974 before the unrest was made up of:
--Protestants 16I,977 (52%);
--Catholics 7,315 (5.5%);
--Muslims 132,215 (42.4%);
--Buddhists and Hindus 467 (0.1%)
Of the Muslims in Ambon, some 35% were originally from outer regions, including North Maluku, Southeast Maluku and other provinces. The number of Christians as a whole was 179,292 of whom 91 % were Protestants belonging to the Maluku Protestant Church (GPM). These are the ones who launched the attacks on Muslims in Maluku.
The flight of Muslims from Maluku as refugees resulted in the defeat of Islamic parties in the June 1999 general election. Thus the PDI-Perjuangan garnered the majority votes in Ambon and its Christian and nationalist--secular elements dominate the provincial legislative body. The PDI-P activists in Maluku are 99.9% Christians with ties to the now defunct Catholic Party (Partai Katolik) and Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo) unlike the majority of its members in other parts of the country who were once affiliated with the now defunct Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI).
The author has included in the book documents of peace agreement that the Christian camp has repeatedly breached, as well as those that support his analysis of the situation.
In his foreword to the book, Prof Mohammed Mahfudz, who is an expert on constitutional law, concedes that Kastor's thesis about the political conspiracy behind
the unrest is not the only one that is gaining currency among the people.
Some observers of the Indonesian scene believe that the collapse of President Suharto's authoritarian regime in May 1998 was to blame. Once the repressive arm of the regime that had upheld the law was gone, horizontal conflict --between Muslim and Christian communities in Maluku -followed. The authoritarian powerholder being no more, the law was no longer being 'safeguarded'; hence  'the emergence of grassroots movements which tend to be anarchic'.
An alternative thesis is that the unrest was offshoot of a conflict among the political elite, as well as a conflict of business and political interests between the old and the new administrators/ power holders in Maluku.
Another view is that the unrest is a form of state or military terrorism: part of a campaign by elements in the armed forces --until now engaged in a pivotal role in the country-- to maintain their social and political dominance in the Indonesian community.
Whatever maybe the explanation for the explosion of events in the territory in question, which may have its resonance in other territories in similar circumstances, Rustam Kastor's thesis about the 'conspirary of RMS and Christians', is thought provoking. For one particular reason, if not for anything else, it is plausible: because it specifically addresses the local elements involved in the unrest in Maluku.

Wahyu Ilahi & Yohanida Fadhila
 

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