Let's keep our calm<\/p>\n
With April 30 approaching, political tension in Jakarta is
\nreaching close to boiling point. April 30, one may remember, is
\nthe date on which the House of Representatives (DPR) is slated to
\nconvene a plenary session to pronounce its judgment on President
\nAbdurrahman Wahid's response to a memorandum of censure that the
\nDPR issued in February.<\/p>\n
As has already been widely reported, with most factions in the
\nHouse having already expressed their dissatisfaction with the
\nPresident's response, expectations are that the DPR will reject
\nAbdurrahman's reply as unsatisfactory and subsequently issue a
\nsecond memorandum of censure, which would technically open the
\nway for impeachment procedures against the President to start
\nrolling.<\/p>\n
Over the past few weeks, therefore, Jakarta has been abuzz
\nwith speculation that, as a result of such a possibility,
\nviolence could be in store. For certain, Abdurrahman's fanatic
\nsupporters in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) -- an organization he led for
\n15 years before he became President and whose members are
\nestimated to number about 40 million -- will not take such an
\ninsult lying down. It should be noted that to them, Abdurrahman
\nis not merely president of the republic; many of them regard him
\nas a man chosen by divinity to lead, and so to dethrone him would
\nbe tantamount to sacrilege.<\/p>\n
By Saturday, thousands of Jakarta's residents have been
\nreported to have fled the city for nearby mountain and beach
\nresorts to escape the expected violence. Obviously Jakarta is in
\nthe grip of angst, the reason for which is not difficult to
\ncomprehend. Jakarta, it must be said, has had traumatic
\nexperiences with mass trouble of this kind. Still, are such fears
\nreally warranted or necessary?<\/p>\n
Some of us may remember how last month similar worries, fed by
\nrumors and speculations of an impending clash between protesting
\nsupporters and opponents of the President, kept the Indonesian
\ncapital on its toes for days. Banser, NU's paramilitary branch,
\nand Ansor, its militant youth wing, were said to be sending
\nhundreds of thousands of their members to Jakarta to back up the
\nPresident and counter his increasingly vocal adversaries on the
\ncapital's streets. As it turned out, Banser and Ansor members did
\ncome to Jakarta, though not in the huge numbers that people
\nexpected. Nor did they cause much trouble apart from obstructing
\ntraffic and causing some minor damage here and there. The same,
\nhowever, could also be said of the President's antagonists. How,
\nthen, did this as yet baseless environment of fear manage to
\nmaterialize in Jakarta?<\/p>\n
Certain elements of our society, it seems, must share the
\nresponsibility for helping to stoke the all too normal tendency
\nof people in this city to prepare themselves for the worst. First
\nto take the blame must be the media. For weeks, for example,
\nJakarta's newspapers and television networks have been awash with
\nreports of sensational acts by the President's most avid
\nsupporters who underwent combat training in East Java, for which
\ntens of thousands of people have volunteered. Men have posed
\nbefore their cameras brandishing sickles and machetes to
\nunderscore their readiness for battle. Visitors from East Java to
\nJakarta, however, report that the situation there is far from
\nwhat it is made to appear in press photos and on television
\nscreens. In fact, the situation in general is quite normal and
\nfar from warlike.<\/p>\n
Then there is the military. Jakarta Military Commander Maj.
\nGen. Bibit Waluyo has let it be known that he will not hesitate
\nto take stern measures against troublemakers and that troops
\nunder his command have been instructed to support the police to
\nsecure the capital. A show of force was displayed at Medan
\nMerdeka Square, complete with armored vehicles -- a challenge to
\nbattle, as it were, to troublemakers and not, it would seem, the
\nmost judgmatic way to maintain calm in conditions of peace.<\/p>\n
Although the overwhelming majority of Indonesians profess to
\nbe Muslims, it seems that a widespread misunderstanding exists as
\nto the meaning of the term istighotsah. In essence, the term
\nmeans to gather for prayer in the full recognition that there are
\nthings that man cannot solve by themselves and divine assistance
\nis necessary. In this case, as NU leaders have repeatedly
\nexplained, the motive is to pray for the well-being of the nation
\nand for an end to its adversities.<\/p>\n
It is of course to be deeply regretted that all this has been
\nused by President Abdurrahman Wahid to blackmail the nation into
\naccepting his arguments for remaining in power -- for example by
\nsaying that 400,000 of his supporters will be traveling to
\nJakarta, or that several regions of the country, including
\nMadura, would secede if he ceased to be President. All this goes
\nto show that Indonesians still have much to learn about democracy
\nand its processes. As for now, all that can be said is that
\nIndonesia obviously has a long way to go toward achieving the
\ndemocratic reforms it aspires to. Whatever the case, though, all
\nthis is no reason for us to be discouraged. As they say, even a
\njourney of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/lets-keep-our-calm-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}