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10/16/2002:
The aftermath of
the terror in Bali is clear. There will be a sense of
insecurity across the archipelago, a poorer image of
the nation around the globe and a potential disaster
of our economy.
For
long, we have denied the presence of threats to our
national security and ignored the very basic rule in
life: if you don’t take care of yourselves someone
will do it for you meaning that someone will destroy
you. Now we find ourselves are extremely overwhelmed
with a huge task to handle this terror and more likely
we are not able to do that without international
supports.
Also
for long, corruption and destructive politics have
ruined the future of the country, and now terrorism is
holding our nation as hostage. Sadly, corruption,
destructive politics and terrorism are three great
recipes for a quick disaster of a nation. So, as a
nation our choice is clear: whether we continue to
exist or accept the ultimate reality that Indonesia
will soon be remembered as history. Unless the nation
fights back against the three poisonous recipes
swiftly and resolutely, we will end up with the second
choice. The bombings in Bali show us that the order of
the tasks to be in the first choice is as follow:
security, constructive politics and economy.
To
start the job, the foremost step we must do is to
examine ourselves and ask question, do we really have
problems with ourselves? An honest answer to this will
shut down a denial mentality. This mentality is the
biggest problem with Indonesia.
The
next step is to put away a blaming game from the
table. The actors behind of the terror have to be
found and prosecuted, but let the authority do the
job. This is the time to come together, sit down and
talk about the future of this nation. After the
September 11 attack in US, the American people were
rallied behind their leaders and they were united.
Although the bombings in Bali were mainly directed
toward foreigners, but the attack was on the
Indonesian soil and it was about lives. Rallying
together behind the government to capture and punish
the terrorists and condemning terrorism will show that
we value lives and reject terror. As a nation, we now
need to ask critical questions: will we surrender our
future to a group of people - whoever they are - who
are trying to destroy this nation and secondly, what
must we do to restore security across the nation
The
need for strong law enforcement is a must. But
just like blood never wins a sympathy and sword never
wins a heart, the authority needs to realize that
machine guns alone will never be able to fully restore
security in the country. It requires a new approach
which combines muscles, productive ideas and humanity.
The authority must walk in a fine line between
protecting the integrity of the nation and at the same
time preserving the human rights of our people. But
one thing is certain, without strong muscles and
punishment any effort to restore security is a joke.
Equivalently, without an active participation of
public community, any effort to restore security will
be ineffective.
While
politicians have indirectly contributed to the
insecurity in the country, public community has long
been too passive in promoting public security.
The passive stance of public community often sent
signals to terrorists that it is all right to hurt and
kill innocent people. Now, enough is enough. The
despicable terror in Bali and the blood of thousands
of innocent people in Moluccan, Poso and other parts
of the country are enough. It is time for public
community to participate actively in building and
promoting national and local security. To start with,
President Megawati has to address the nation of the
urgency of building national and local security to the
future of the nation. And Megawati has to appeal to
her fellow Indonesians to be vigilant while keeping
the high tolerance among people from different
religion, ethnic groups and races. She has to
resolutely state that any activities and organizations
or interest groups that promote hate and violence will
be banned and punished. The tolerance for
violence and hate is zero, regardless its cause.
Words are then followed by determined actions.
A
strong law enforcement and an active participation of
public community do not guarantee a stable national
security. It also requires a new paradigm in our
national politics. As Bill Guerin in Asia
Times puts this nicely, “This political
manipulation using Islamic symbols is extremely
dangerous and poses the greatest danger ever to
Indonesia's stability since the downfall of Suharto.
The crisis of leadership suffered by Indonesia that
allows Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism to be
confused with all Islamic movements, political and
social, non-violent and violent, is driving a wedge
between the West and the Indonesian Muslims. If the
West and the Islamic world cannot meet in the middle,
then the future holds only the frightening prospect of
more hatred and radicalism...”
Politicians
in Indonesia have long assumed that Indonesian people
are unintelligent and easy to be manipulated. They
make their political maneuvers based on that
assumption such as the bizarre political tactic by the
Vice President, Hamzah Haz – embracing a less
popular group while abandoning his party grass root -
and the shameful maneuver by the House of
Representatives (DPR) Speaker and chairman of the
Golkar party, Akbar Tanjung – resisting the demand
to resign despite his conviction as felony. Sadly,
President Megawati and her political advisors seem to
employ this wrong assumption. They forget the basic
fact that if the assumption were right, her party,
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle would never
win the 1999 election. Party leaders and elites
must understand that people are now hungry, jobless
and desperate for a good education and safety. So, any
attempt to win votes in the 2004 election by selling
religious and other exclusive symbols is no longer
appealing for people. People have already seen
the good quality of lives in neighboring countries
such as Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. They
have seen that countries which reduce the choice of
their people into a binary choice - black and white -
are all economically and politically backward.
Most
parties and interest group leaders are now more
interested in the upcoming 2004 election rather than
in the future of the country. For them, my
advice is this: “if your party is a party of
exclusion and able to provide prosperity and security
to all Indonesian people, you are the winner. But if
your party is a party of inclusion and cannot offer
prosperity and security to all Indonesians, you are a
loser.”
Right
now people need progress, not regress. People need
peace with one another, not hatred. And people already
know which way to realize progress and which way to
promote peace. Never try to fool them because it is
not going to work.
Published version in The jakarta Post
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