The latest crackdown by the Indonesian
government, just one month before presidential elections
on July 5, is not being aimed at rebel forces in Aceh,
but rather at the International Crisis Group (ICG) and
other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in
Indonesia. ICG's Southeast Asia director Sidney Jones
and analyst Francesca Lawe-Davies were given the
marching orders to leave Indonesia "immediately" on
Wednesday and could depart before the weekend is over.
Almost overnight they were made persona non grata and
have since been treated more like dissidents than
international activists.
The move is strongly
reminiscent of actions taken during the rule of former
dictator Suharto. But perhaps there were higher motives
of nationalism involved in expelling Jones and
Lawe-Davies from Indonesia, as many government officials
believe ICG's reports on terrorism and separatist
movements have only fanned the seeds of discontent in
the country. The ICG was among 20 NGOs named by the head
of the state intelligence agency (BIN), retired general
A M Hendropriyono, as potential security threats to the
upcoming presidential elections.
Since its
establishment in 2000, the Brussels-based ICG, which
researches the causes of conflicts worldwide, has
published critical reports on Jakarta's handling of
separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua provinces. It has
published 37 reports and briefing papers on conflict
related issues and has reported extensively on the
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist movement, communal
violence and the transition from military to civilian
rule.
It comes as little surprise then that
ICG's independent reports, circulated both inside and
outside of Indonesia, were ruffling a few feathers in
certain quarters of the government, as well as the
Indonesian military.
"It was clear that her
[Jones'] reports were creating some embarrassment to the
government since it was later revealed that the National
Intelligence Agency head, general Hendropriyono felt
that her reports were not all true and it damaged the
country's image overseas," said Agus Marjoedi a former
human rights activists in Jakarta.
The first
sign that trouble was brewing for ICG occurred in
February when Jones' visa extension was denied approval
by the Labor Department. The BIN is empowered by
Presidential Instruction No 5/2002 to coordinate all
intelligence activities and has the authority to review
foreigners' work permits. Many see this directive as a
way for the all powerful government machinery to expel
anyone it deems dissident as there is no legal recourse
in place to dispute decisions made by the BIN.
Although several officials have reacted to the
expulsion - national assembly speaker Amien Rais, a
candidate in the presidential election, said that the
expulsion "will have a negative impact" - no government
official has taken responsibility for the decision to
expel Jones, who remains largely in the dark about the
causes for her expulsion. "We haven't even been told
directly what we've done wrong - the officials concerned
won't meet with us. We have not been able to respond to
any charges, and there is no legal mechanism to
challenge the expulsion," Jones said.
ICG's
president, former Australian foreign minister Gareth
Evans, said "the expulsion order is outrageous and
indefensible, utterly at odds with Indonesia's claim to
be an open and democratic society, and is bound to
damage Indonesia's reputation far more than ICG's. We
urge the government to allow us to resume our activity.
To shoot the messenger doesn't say much for the state of
political liberty in Indonesia under the Megawati
[Sukarnoputri] government," he said in a press
statement.
ICG's reports have been labeled as
counter-subversive to the Indonesian republic and are
seen by the government as having the potential to divide
the public. An excerpt from ICG's most recent report on
new violence in Ambon reads: "The response of the
Indonesian government at both local and national levels
has been poor, from the short-sightedness of the police
to the unhelpful portrayal of the violence in some
quarters as Christian independence supporters against
Muslim defenders of national unity.
"What is
needed now is a thorough, impartial, professional and
transparent investigation into the causes. ICG discounts
the government's quick presumption that the gun men
belonged to FKM or radical Muslim groups. The former
have no sniper capacity, the latter would not have aimed
at members of their own community. Much speculation has
focused on members or ex-members of the security forces,
who would have the necessary marksmanship. But no hard
evidence at this stage supports any of the conspiracy
theories that link the killings to the national
presidential elections later this summer or local
police-military rivalry."
This report seems like
hardly enough of a reason to expel Jones, particularly
after the earlier release in December 2002 of a
controversial ICG report on JI operations and the
Christmas Eve bombing in Medan. Although the report did
not conclude that Indonesian military intelligence
worked directly with the alleged terrorist network, ICG
did suggest, although not conclusively, that the Free
Aceh Movement, Indonesia's military (TNI) and JI may be
surprising bedfellows. In addition, it recommended that
the government strengthen the capacity and coordination
of intelligence, with an emphasis on the police rather
than the BIN or the TNI, and also pay serious attention
to corruption among police, the military and the
immigration service, particularly in connection with the
trade in arms and explosives.
This inflammatory
report would seem to have been a more compelling reason
to expel Jones two years ago rather than now with the
start of presidential campaigning. The real motivations
behind expelling Jones, and possibly curbing NGO
activity in Indonesia, are unclear, but putting an end
to criticism from groups such as the ICG could promote
the ruling faction led by President Megawati
Sukarnoputri's Democratic Party of Struggle and give her
added leverage in the run up to July's elections, the
first in which voters in the world's largest Muslim
nation will choose their leader directly.
In
hindsight, the ICG reports largely look at how the
violence started in the troubled provinces such as Ache
and Papua, discuss the missteps, if any, made by
officials in addressing the violence and the different
theories that have emerged to explain it. However,
according to Todung Mulya Lubis, a human rights lawyer
and chairman of ICG's board in Indonesia, the reports
are based on analysis and are not loaded or
sensationalized. "We feel that these reports were fair,
objective and balanced," he said, adding that BIN's
assertions that the ICG's reports damaged the country's
reputation are too simplistic.
In addition to
the ICG, another NGO that has come under the close
scrutiny of BIN is Elsam, a human rights organization.
Its chairman, Ifdhal Kasim, said in an earlier interview
with the Jakarta Post that he had no idea why his NGO
was included on the watch list, as no government or
security officials had ever complained about its
activities.
"Our reports are mostly about
government policies on human rights and legal reforms.
And our criticisms are based on scientific analysis and
are intended for policymakers, not for the general
public," he said. Being censured by the government now
seems to Ifdhal like a return to the days of Suharto,
when acts of intimidation and public censure were used
as a powerful tool to control objective views and
opinions. Elsam has published reports on violence in
East Timor and the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, assisted
in human rights tribunals and legal reform and
formulated recommendations on the establishment of a
reconciliation commission.
For now, with
elections on the horizon, it will be interesting to see
whether Indonesia chooses to stay the democratic course
and be committed to reforms in light of its earlier
reformasi period, or go the other way and adopt
the very policies that in retrospect it tried to
overturn during the Suharto era. Perhaps the need to
strengthen national unity comes at the expense of the
Indonesian republic, and officials such as Hendropriyono
see giving a hand to NGOs like ICG as fanning the seeds
of discontent that are fast brewing in the Indonesia
archipelago.
But Indonesia would do well to take
a page from its history and realize that a closed
society only breeds closed minds. Taking a bit of
criticism could go a long way toward repairing its
international image as the largest, democratic Muslim
country in the world. Perhaps the next president,
whoever that may be, will start to look at things
differently and put a stop to Indonesia's falling
foreign direct investments instead of stopping its
foreign nationals.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
