Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – 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.
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?