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Indonesian police earn 'A', Megawati gets
'F'
By Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR,
Bali - Approaching a presidential deadline of cracking
the Bali bombing case by the end of November,
Indonesia's police have done a heroic job, compared with
previous form as hopelessly corrupt Keystone Kops
powerless against criminals more sophisticated than
chicken thieves. Meanwhile Indonesia's politicians,
starting with President Megawati Sukarnoputri, have
played to their dismal form and failed to give their
police force or the citizenry what it deserves.
Last week's arrest of Imam Samudra and related
captures of several co-conspirators have taken the major
perpetrators of the October 12 bombings that left nearly
200 dead out of circulation. Whether Samudra proves to
be the mastermind of the plot or solely the operations
manager, and whether the conspiracy reaches Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), which advocates an Islamic state from a
sliver of Thailand through Indonesia, or al-Qaeda
remains to be proved. Public comments from police have
been restrained.
Doubts about Indonesia's police
run deep, particularly in the Islamic fundamentalist
community. During much of his 30-year authoritarian
rule, former president Suharto used the police (then
part of the army) as a blunt instrument to keep
Islamists from gaining a wide following. That history
has led to police negotiating with leaders of
pesantren - Islamic boarding schools - suspected
of harboring terror suspects, a spectacle that seems
nonsensical to outsiders.
On the wrong side
of history
Vice President Hamzah Haz warned
police "do not treat places of worship as terrorist
hiding places" when, in fact, that's exactly what they
are suspected of being. The problem is that police
routinely ransacked these religious schools during the
Suharto regime. Mainstream Muslim leaders also called
for restraint, and police wisely acknowledged the
sensitive situation, entering into dialogues with school
authorities and Islamic groups.
Within days of
these outreach efforts, the leader of Muhammadiyah,
Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organization with
more than 3 million members, was urging clerics to
assist police in their efforts to catch the terrorists.
Students begin their end of Ramadan holidays on Friday,
and police may move in then, if the suspects are already
in custody.
Megawati also took up her own
dialogue with Muslim leaders to assure them that the
government's war on terrorism is not a war on Islam. She
made this gesture five weeks after the Bali tragedy. Her
television appearance the day after the blasts to read a
statement condemning the attacks that "once again remind
us that terrorism is a real danger and potential threat
to national security" suggested she might step to the
forefront of the state's counterattack against wanton
violence. Instead she subsequently clammed up and went
on one of her beloved overseas jaunts.
Between
the bombing and Megawati's meeting with religious
leaders, public attitudes were poisoned with unhelpful
rhetoric, including a contention that the US Central
Intelligence Agency was responsible for the Bali
bombing; alleged JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
- who initially voiced that bit of nonsense - was taken
into police custody from his hospital bed, sparking
violent clashes with his supporters; and other
fundamentalist leaders accused the government of caving
in to foreign pressure by vigorously pursuing the Bali
case.
That vigor stands in stark contrast, for
whatever reason, to the lack of effective responses to
bomb attacks and communal violence throughout the
archipelago over the past four years. The apparent
success of the Bali investigation has inspired more
questions than congratulations from the political elite.
One of the loopier statements comes from
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais. While
professing he was "80 percent convinced" the police were
on target with their arrests, he urged them to give the
suspects materials to build a bomb and let them detonate
it in an open area to remove all doubts. Gee, if the
police told you to build a bomb to prove you're guilty,
you'd do it to out of professional pride as a terrorist,
wouldn't you?
Speak softly and carry a big
purse
No Indonesian leader has stood up to say,
"Killing innocent people, in the name of any cause, is
wrong and a crime against the nation. It is not an
expression of Islam; it is apostasy against the
principles of the Prophet and the Koran, and against
every other civilized religious belief. Our government
will take all steps to end the violence that has
engulfed our nation over the past four years, so that we
may live in peace and prosperity again."
Megawati made her belated appeal to selected
religious influentials behind closed doors, without a
public statement, as is her style. Several days earlier,
despite expectations she would attend, Megawati skipped
a historic Pemarisudha Karipubhaya cleansing
ceremony at the Bali bomb site, snubbing representatives
of all major nationally recognized religions (no
rabbis), the diplomatic corps, family members of 51
victims, and thousands of her staunch Balinese
supporters. The president reportedly chose to inspect a
new mansion in Bogor instead.
She followed up
her dialogue with Islamic leaders by visiting the
Istiqial Grand Mosque in Jakarta on November 21,
emphasizing that the Koran preaches peace. "With that
teaching, we are expected to put away all these thoughts
that justify terrorism or other violent acts," Megawati
said. Ignoring the measured ambiguity (in the original
Indonesian as well as the translation) of that first
sentence, Megawati added, "The Koran gives us the
strength to achieve our goals through peace and in a
harmonious way."
So was Megawati saying that
terrorist acts may be warranted and that the words of
the Koran are the only reason not to strike out
violently?
Later in her speech, she talked of "a
superpower that forced the rest of the world to go along
with it". Without mentioning the superpower by name, she
continued, "We see how ambition to conquer other nations
has led to a situation where there is no more peace
unless the whole world is complying with the will of the
one with the power and the strength. International
organizations seem to be helpless in upholding the
principles of truth and justice. All of these things
should serve as a challenge for us and for the rest of
the civilized nations."
Thank goodness for the
Koran for preventing good Muslims from giving the United
States what Megawati claims it deserves.
Year
of living dangerously II
If Megawati had
regularly, publicly and forcefully condemned the Bali
bombings and the other acts of terror that plague
Indonesian society, then a little bit of Bush-bashing in
a speech at a mosque would be easily dismissed as a
political grandstanding. But her reticence makes
Megawati's choice to condemn the United States instead
of terrorists in a rare public speech difficult to
excuse so easily.
Her remarks may strike
Westerners in Indonesia as particularly tasteless since
they came in the middle of an unscheduled two-week
holiday for Jakarta's international-school students due
to terrorist threats. The closures left hundreds of
American, British and Australian children virtual
prisoners in their homes, since public venues were
already declared off limits by embassy security
warnings, and parents prey to enormous guilt for
potentially putting their children at risk. Ibu
(Mother) Mega has yet to utter a word of concern.
Anecdotal evidence suggests many expatriate
families have decided to leave Jakarta over this latest
escalation of the tensions in the capital. Expect a
further turn of the screw after Ramadan, when people
from the countryside traditionally stream into Jakarta
in search of jobs suited to their limited skills.
They'll provide ready rent-a-mob services for supporters
of Ba'asyir, anti-American rallies, and perhaps even
protests against the police zeal in the bombing probe.
When expat families go, they not only take their
skills and purchasing power with them, they advertise
that Indonesia is not a safe place for foreigners or
their capital. That leaves the field wide open to the
same tycoons who bled the country dry under Suharto
(while giving his family a cut; Megawati's husband
Taufik Kiemas is rumored to have revived the tradition
of Suharto's wife Tien, known as Madame Tien Percent).
While the politicians tiptoe through the
wreckage, the security forces have demonstrated that
they understand the Bali bombs demanded changes in their
modus operandi. In addition to the unprecedented
professionalism of the Bali investigation, generals
withdrew support from a pair of Muslim militia groups
that destroyed nightspots (reportedly for failure to pay
sufficient protection money to police) and murdered
Christians in the Malukus and central Sulawesi. The
Islamic Protection Front (FPI) and Laksar Jihad quickly
melted away because the security forces realized their
irresponsible behavior had gone to far.
Indonesian politicians have shown no such gift
for self-awareness or acting responsibly in the national
interest. Since last year's September 11 attacks on the
United States, Megawati has staggered along a fine line
between supporting the US enough to win new aid while
pandering to radical elements at home to enhance her
re-election chances in 2004.
Widespread
insistence that radicals compromise a tiny minority of
Indonesia's 230 million people belies Megawati's
reluctance to condemn perpetrators of violence
forcefully. It also begs the question of considering the
source of those assurances of mainstream moderation: the
same politicians' elite that insisted, despite reams of
evidence to the contrary before October 12, that there
were no terrorists in Indonesia. Terrorists in Indonesia
may be small in number, mind and integrity; they are up
against a political elite that can outsmall them at
every turn.
(©2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.
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