COMMENT Indonesian leadership
silent on religious violence By Gary
LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Religious-inspired
violence is old news in Indonesia. Muslim extremists
were behind the Bali bombings of October 2002 and,
allegedly, the Marriott Hotel blast last August. The
secessionist movement in resource-rich Aceh cloaks
itself in strict Islamic clothing. In the Maluku Islands
and in Central Sulawesi, communal violence between
Christians and Muslims erupted shortly after the fall of
Suharto in 1998 and has simmered, occasionally boiling
over, ever since.
Few human rights are more
basic than the right to live in safety and security, and
religious-inspired violence - whether fostered by the
Koran, the Bible, foreigners, rogue military elements,
Zionists or the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as
various groups allege - is the greatest threat to safety
and security in Indonesia. That's why the silence of
Indonesia's political leadership following renewed
clashes in Ambon and the rearrest of radical Islamic
cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, sparking bloody conflicts
around the archipelago, is not only deafening, but
shameful.
Politicians are busy this week in the
world's largest predominantly Muslim nation, though,
wrangling to arrange their tickets for the July 5
presidential election, with incumbent Megawati
Sukarnoputri, challenger Wiranto and others seeking
running mates, and minor parties holding out for the
best deal. In the campaign to date, radical Islam is the
800-pound gorilla in the room that no one dares mention.
Their fiddling, while Ambon burns and violence in the
name of Islam smolders, illustrates the Indonesian
political elite's disconnect from the real problems of
this vast nation.
Back to future in
Ambon In Ambon, the capital of Maluku, fighting
erupted on April 25 after two years of relative calm.
Members of the predominantly Christian separatist
organization marched to commemorate the 54th anniversary
of their declaration of an independent Republic of South
Maluku. That's the kind of communal display that police
are supposed to prevent; instead, some officers joined
the parade to provide protection. The marchers clashed
with predominantly Muslim opponents, and the battle
resumed. So far, at least 38 are dead, many at the hands
of snipers, and hundreds have been injured.
Local
leaders of both the Christian and Muslim communities
blame outsiders for this outbreak. Indeed, hundreds of
Muslim fighters recruited from other areas of the
archipelago and internationally fueled the previous
three-year fight that left at least 9,000 dead, until a
military ship mysteriously appeared and removed them
after the October 2002 Bali bombings. Armed-forces
supporters of Suharto are believed to be behind these
dark forces, such as the thugs who conducted massacres
in East Timor. Retired General Wiranto, Suharto's last
military chief and presidential nominee of Suharto's
ruling party Golkar despite his international indictment
for the East Timor killings, might benefit from an
unstable domestic situation that demands a strong,
experienced former military commander (see Looking for Mister Golkar
, April 22).
Wiranto
has made no public statement about the outbreak in
Ambon, but he's not alone. The closest that President
Megawati has come to speaking out was sending one of her
daughters there last week to promise medical supplies to
victims. Gee, thanks.
Big, bad
Ba'asyir The silence over Ambon pales in
comparison with the case of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the
reputed spiritual leader of the terrorist group Jemaah
Islamiya, because of the larger issue of violent,
radical Islam.
Jailed for his radicalism under
Suharto and an exile in Malaysia until the Suharto
regime fell, Ba'asyir was taken into custody after the
Bali bombings and tried on terrorism charges last year.
He claims the CIA was behind the Bali bombs and, like
many Indonesians - without contradiction from their
leadership - that Jemaah Islamiya is a figment of
Western imagination. Much of the evidence against
Ba'asyir allegedly came from terrorism suspects in US
custody, fueling Ba'asyir's claims that he was a victim
of the West's plot to destroy Islam.
Observers
say prosecutors presented an extraordinarily weak case,
and Ba'asyir was acquitted of the terror charges last
year, but sentenced to four years for immigration
violations connected to his exile. Western officials
howled about the split-the-difference verdict, privately
and publicly, bolstering Ba'asyir's claims as a
conspiracy victim. A higher court later cut the sentence
to 18 months.
Ba'asyir was due for release last
Friday from his relatively comfortable confinement that
included an unlocked room with private bath, use of a
mobile phone in contravention of prison rules, and
frequent visits from Islamic politicians and religious
leaders. But police claimed they had new evidence and
wanted to question him further. Ba'asyir refused to
cooperate, and his lawyers claimed the new allegations
were further evidence of US influence. He was released
and immediately rearrested on terrorism charges.
The incident sparked a riot outside the Jakarta
prison between an estimated 700 Ba'asyir supporters and
police that left more than 100 people injured.
Indonesia's leadership sheltered comfortably under their
cone of silence, and the populace paid for it.
The next day, students at the Indonesian Muslim
University in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi
protesting Ba'asyir's release turned violent, reportedly
yanking an off-duty police officer from a vehicle and
taking him hostage. Police stormed the campus and, by
all accounts, beat everyone in sight. The 61 injured
included four students who were shot.
Would a
presidential statement, even one delivered by a cabinet
officer - since Ibu Mega rarely speaks for
herself - saying that Ba'asyir was being detained
because police say he is a threat to our nation and that
their evidence will be aired openly in a court of law
that will determine justice for him and for Indonesia,
have prevented the violence in Makassar? We'll never
know. In fact, at this point, we don't even know if
Megawati has heard about Ba'asyir's confinement or the
accompanying violence.
The silence fits a long-standing
pattern. Since the Bali bombing, Indonesia's political
leaders have offered blanket condemnations of terror
violence, but categorically refused to condemn its
perpetrators or link it to radical Islam. Paradoxically,
though, they often offer excuses for Islamic anger, such
as the invasion of Iraq and US support of Israel, and
those US policies undoubtedly make it more difficult for
them to join hands with the US on the terror issue
(see Unhappy anniversary for US-Indonesia
ties
, September 11,
2003). They claim that the majority of Indonesia's
estimated 200 million Muslims are moderates, yet will
not condemn radical fringe elements.
Police officials get no political
cover to fight terror. It's a trick from the
authoritarian days - gee, what can we do about those
nasty security forces? - that continues to serve
politicians well. National Police Chief General D'ai
Bachtiar deserves praise for carrying out his job
despite the absence of public support from the political
leadership; he promptly fired the police officials in
charge in both Makassar and Ambon this week (see Indonesian police earn 'A,' Megawati
gets 'F'
, November
29, 2002).
Not all politicians are silent,
though. Hamdan Zulva, head of the House of
Representatives' Commission for Legal and Human Rights,
plans to call Bachtiar on the carpet this week to demand
Ba'asyir's release. Zulva is a member of the Muslim
Crescent Star Party, a strict grouping that demands
imposing Islamic law in Indonesia. In last month's
legislative elections, the Crescent Star Party received
2.57 percent of the vote. Who among Indonesia's
political elite dares speak out for the other 97.43
percent?
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