Ba'asyir's: A historical view<\/p>\n
Onghokham, Historian, Jakarta<\/p>\n
For weeks the Indonesian press has reported on the
\ndifficulties and reluctance of the Indonesian police and security
\nforces in arresting or interrogating the old, frail cleric Abu
\nBakar Ba'asyir, founder of a religious school (pesantren) in
\nNgruki on Central Java's north coast. However, finally the police
\narrested Ba'asyir.<\/p>\n
Is Ba'asyir somehow untouchable because of political reasons
\nor other reasons? With regard to the religious establishment
\nthere are always those who could offer resistance; The arrest of,
\nsay the Archbishop of New York or the Archbishop of Canterbury
\nwould create a big political stir.<\/p>\n
In our age we have seen the mightiest earthly king, the Shah
\nof Iran overthrown by a frail old cleric, the Ayatollah Khomeni;
\nthe most totalitarian of regimes in Eastern Europe were even more
\nrecently being heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic clergy.<\/p>\n
No wonder Indonesian security forces hesitate in dealing with
\nBa'asyir, whatever the reasons. This is an entirely new attitude
\ndeparting from usual practices in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Under Soeharto there were the ruthless Tanjung Priok killings
\ninvolving the death of a religious leader, the practice of
\nmysterious killers who executed arbitrarily, without trial and
\npolice warrants, thousands of suspected criminals and trouble
\nmakers.<\/p>\n
In view of this still relatively recent arbitrary policies of
\npolice and security forces, its attitude towards the Ba'asyir
\ncase is indeed entirely new; especially with regard to the
\ncenturies-old principle of state supremacy and security as its
\nprime objective. Is there suddenly a new consciousness of the
\nlimits of state power?<\/p>\n
It is not politics but primarily human rights considerations
\nand principles of innocence before proven guilty that has likely
\nled to this stance. If the latter is the case, then this is
\nprogress, aside from one's political sympathies or religious
\nallegiance. Human rights cases are always political, thus the
\nBa'asyir case might have both aspects.<\/p>\n
The Ba'asyir case should be depoliticized and be made into a
\npurely criminal case for both domestic as well international
\npurposes -- as the whole terrorist question should be -- instead
\nof the silly issue of being an Islam-versus-Christian (Western)-
\nconflict.<\/p>\n
First, terrorism is always criminal. Although its events, if
\nsuccessful, are always spectacular such as the bombings of the
\nWorld Trade Center in New York or the Kuta beach nightclubs in
\nBali, history has shown that such acts can never bring victory
\nover modern nations and states or cause their overthrow.<\/p>\n
As for the conflict between Islam and the West, for the large
\npart of the 20th century during the Cold War there was more
\ncooperation rather than conflict between Islam and the West.<\/p>\n
For a real conflict or clash of civilizations similar to the
\nauthor Samuel Huntington's model, one really needs two equal
\npowers of equal political and military strength -- and there are
\nnone of those in Islam which can match the wealth, power and
\nstrength of the West, let alone its current standard bearer the
\nUnited States. Within the Islamic world, in the foreseeable
\nfuture, there is no country or society, not even Iraq, which
\ncould become anything near such a power.<\/p>\n
The only civilization which could challenge the West is that
\nof East Asia (Japanese and Chinese civilizations). However, both
\nthe Western civilization and the Eastern civilizations are too
\nesoteric and too isolated from each other to invite a conflict or
\neven a skirmish.<\/p>\n
Terrorism nowadays is not a conflict but a phenomena of the
\nlunatic fringe and the best way to treat it is not by counter
\nterrorism of the state -- which is equally useless as history has
\nshown, such as in the case of Indonesia under Soeharto.<\/p>\n
If the new hesitancy of the state in dealing with the Ba'asyir
\ncase is because of concerns over human rights and legal
\nprocedures, then the security apparatus deserves praise.<\/p>\n
Whatever the state's hesitancy in the Ba'asyir case was,
\nrelations from now on between the state and society might well
\nhave undergone a big change -- hopefully because of reformasi.<\/p>",
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