Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – Last week was a rough one for jihadis in Indonesia. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration launched a long-overdue comprehensive campaign against violent Islamic extremists. In the country with the world's most Muslims, the outcome of Yudhoyono's initiative could prove far more significant in the global war for the hearts and minds of Muslims than the assassination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Since the fall of General Suharto's New Order regime in 1998, Islamic extremists have asserted their right to enjoy the fruits of democracy and impose the will of Indonesia's Muslim majority as they presume to interpret it. They're unperturbed that most Indonesians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, oppose their agenda. These radicals are no democrats. Politically educated under Suharto's reign of physical intimidation and intolerance of dissent, they merely wish to substitute their own version of autocracy and repression.
A handful of radical Islamic groups use violence as a first resort against their opponents, often with a wink from authorities. Violent extremism's renaissance began with police using vigilantes to extract protection money from reluctant bar owners and blossomed with the military's logistical support to send thousands of jihadis to the Malukus and central Sulawesi to undermine Abdurrahman Wahid's presidential election victory in 1999. Armed mobs draped in the white robes of Islam routinely attack churches, homes and businesses they accuse of various heretical views while police take no action and perpetrators escape prosecution. Government reluctance to stand up to thugs gives the impression of implicit approval, or that the extremists serve a higher authority.
Disrupting public order
Last July, thousands of vigilantes stormed a community of 700 members of Amadiyah, a Muslim splinter group in Bogor, a hill town outside Jakarta where President Yudhoyono makes his family home. The national Attorney General's Office promised to investigate Ahmadiyah, not the attackers, as "disruptive to the public order". Strikes on other Ahmadiyah facilities as well as a wave of attacks on Christian churches followed.
This April, a violent Islamic extremist campaign spearheaded by Islam Defenders Front (known by its Indonesian abbreviation FPI) stopped publication of a nudity-free local edition of Playboy magazine. Mobs threatened and attacked news vendors and distributors, seized magazines and stoned the publisher's office while police passively stood by. Mainstream groups joined the campaign against Playboy, offering mild regrets over any violence in pursuit of the righteous cause.
Proposed anti-pornography legislation, laden with Islamist principles better suited for fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia, has become a focal point in the struggle over the creeping Islamization in Indonesia, which has more non-Muslims than Australia and Canada combined. The bill has also become a convenient excuse for violent displays of piety. After a rally in Jakarta last month supporting the legislation, extremist thugs attacked clubs in Jakarta and descended on the homes of prominent opponents of the bill. One target asked police for help as mobs harassed her, chanting slogans outside her house and telling her to leave town. Jakarta police chief Firman Gani demurred, saying he'd need a language expert to determine whether the chants violated the law.
Last straw
The last straw stirring Yudhoyono's ponderous government appears to have been an attack on former president Wahid on May 23. At an interfaith forum in the West Java town of Purwakarta, members of FPI and other radical groups forced Wahid, virtually blind and limited physically because of a series of strokes, off the stage. The radicals cited Wahid's opposition to the anti-pornography bill as an insult to Islam.
Mainstream Muslim groups Nahdlatul Ulama – formerly headed by Wahid – and Muhammidyah, with a combined membership of 70 million, denounced FPI's action against Wahid. Hundreds of his young supporters from the National Awakening Party's paramilitary wing poured into the streets, clashing with FPI members.
It may not have been just the political cover from mass organizations and the prospect of further street violence that moved the government. If the extremists went after Wahid, a Muslim cleric and scholar as well as a former president, no politician could feel safe. While Wahid's iconoclasm and failed presidency – he was removed in favor of Megawati Sukarnoputri after two stormy years in office – have left him virtually powerless, he's still widely respected as a symbol of Indonesia's unique brand of Islam. Radicals might have miscalculated Wahid's political impotence as a signal they'd win applause rather than condemnation for attacking him.
'Invisible hands'
The Yudhoyono administration's campaign against violent Islamists began innocently in the president's Pancasila Day speech on June 1. Pancasila (Sanskrit for "five principles") is the national philosophy enshrined by the nation's founders and subsequently corrupted under Suharto. In his speech, Yudhoyono called for a revival of Pancasila and accused "invisible hands" of trying to spread ideas against the nation's core principles of tolerance and pluralism. Although the "invisible hands" metaphor is hardly apt for white-robed mobs with stones and clubs, the message came through.
The speech was a nice bit of political shadow-boxing, indirectly confronting the extremists and recasting the debate in the government's chosen terms. But Yudhoyono is becoming famous for saying the right things, when he does finally speak out, and then failing to follow through with effective action.
This week, the action began. On Wednesday, Widodo Adi Suptjipto, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, announced that the government will no longer tolerate groups that take the law into their own hands. While that may have been said before, Widodo added this important coda: the government will provide political cover for police and support their effort to enforce the law against these groups, no matter who their patrons may be.
When the Indonesian police receive political support, as in the Bali bombings of 2002, they've proved they can act professionally and decisively. The Bali investigation featured star officer Mangku Pastika in charge, and the spotlight now falls on Jakarta police chief Gani to show his stuff. Even though vigilantism isn't restricted to Jakarta, the capital has seen the highest-profile incidents and Gani stands out as a symbol of police indifference.
On Friday, Home Minister M Ma'ruf announced an agreement with legislative leaders to enact a law enabling the government to dissolve organizations "disturbing security and order". Though the vague wording smacks of Suharto-era repression, human-rights activists didn't promptly unleash their usual complaints. Perhaps they realize that thuggery is a greater threat to rights than a potentially restrictive new law. They may also recognize that the real purpose of the proposal is to get political parties – Yudhoyono represents a tiny party and gets spotty support from the larger ones – and legislators to denounce vigilantism and withdraw their support from such groups.
These are all good, solid moves, breaking the government's deafening silence on extremist violence. Expect more this week: Yudhoyono (or Vice President Jusuf Kalla) will meet with the leaders of major Muslim organizations, and each group's head will denounce extremist violence as contrary to Islam. A similar meeting and announcement after the second Bali bombings last October reversed the groups' lukewarm criticism of terrorist violence – it's wrong but we understand why – and prompted a sea change in public opinion from indifference to condemnation of such acts of terror.
Condemning the radical thugs may prove a greater challenge for so-called mainstream leaders who have found common ground with extremists. Muhammidyah chairman Din Syamsuddin also chairs the Indonesia Ulemas Council, the would-be supreme authority for Islam in Indonesia whose fatwa against heretics and pluralism have provided religious cover for violence. The usual weasel is that the leaders condemn the violence but blame police for failing to prevent it, rather than the perpetrators. Onstage with the president, the leaders will lose their wiggle room.
Hypocrisy isn't all being laid bare as violent extremism comes under counterattack. Playboy surprised the public and especially extremists with its second issue. After being run out of Jakarta by hardliners and suspending publication, the magazine didn't fold but quietly relocated to predominantly Hindu Bali. The second Playboy includes blank pages dedicated to advertisers who've been threatened for placing ads in the first issue. While still free of nudity, June's Bali-based French model Amar Doriane in a sheer negligee makes April's Playmate "look like a naive schoolgirl" according to one local newspaper. The Yudhoyono team wasn't alone in showing a bit of cheek toward violent radicals last week.
[Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, he is also a contributor to Slate and Salon.com, and a counselor for Writing Camp.]