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
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
