Life is cheap in Indonesia<\/p>\n
Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta,
\nkorpur@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
A strong sense of grief would be felt by anyone who saw the
\npictures of victims of the disastrous floods in Bahorok, North
\nSumatra, in newspaper and TV reports on Thursday. However, that
\nsorrow would quickly turn to anger if they saw the front page of
\nIndonesia Pos, which showed four Indonesian Military (TNI)
\nsoldiers treating the body of a Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebel
\nlike an animal they had hunted and killed.<\/p>\n
Whose consciousness would not be bothered by the death of 100
\npeople in the disastrous torrent in the area surrounding the
\norangutan reserve in Bahorok?<\/p>\n
In the meantime whose sense of humanity would not be disturbed
\nto see three soldiers proudly grabbed the hair of the dead
\nYustinus Murib while another soldier pointed his gun at Yustinus'
\nstomach? Even in the most brutal of wars such behavior is
\nintolerable,<\/p>\n
On the Leuser disaster, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, with
\nno hesitation, placed responsibility for the disaster on the
\nshoulders of illegal loggers in the nearby Leuser National Park.<\/p>\n
Her environment minister, Nabiel Makarim, described the
\nillegal loggers as terrorists.<\/p>\n
\"According to the criteria set down in the antiterrorism law,
\nenvironmental destruction such as illegal logging can be
\nclassified as terrorism,\" Nabiel said after meeting with the
\nPresident.<\/p>\n
But what else can the President do besides sending her husband
\nTaufik Kiemas to visit the scene of the disaster, distribute some
\nhumanitarian aid and sing the same old song that those who are
\nresponsible will be severely punished, whoever they are?
\nCoordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla also
\npromised to disburse Rp 50 billion (US$ 5.8 million) to help the
\nvictims. The family of the deceased will receive Rp 2 million.<\/p>\n
Whether or not these promises are kept is not the issue, and
\neven the victims themselves do not expect much from Taufik or the
\nminister. There are too many examples of government officials
\ncorrupting donations for victims of disasters, including the
\nvictims of the tidal wave in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara,
\nearthquakes in Lampung and Jambi, and landslides in West Java. It
\nwas this corruption that moved president Abdurrahman Wahid to
\ndisband the ministry of social services in 1999.<\/p>\n
Whenever natural disasters, terrorist attacks or severe
\ntraffic accidents happen, everyone from the president to
\nministers and governors act like generous state officials.<\/p>\n
First, they promise to cover all medical costs, but if you
\ncheck with the hospitals where the victims are treated you will
\ndiscover that this promise is rarely realized. Then president
\nB.J. Habibie made a long list of promises for the victims of the
\nMay riots in 1998 which forced Soeharto out of office, starting
\nfrom the upholding of justice to humanitarian assistance. What
\nhappened then?<\/p>\n
Second, the officials tend to think that they have solved all
\nthe problems by showing some generosity. They think a death
\ncaused by human negligence or greed, state terrorism or natural
\ndisasters is thoroughly atoned for when the victims or their
\nfamilies receive a small token of sympathy from the government.<\/p>\n
The government officials do not want to think about how to
\nmake sure that such deaths do not occur again. For the government
\nand many Indonesians, promises are seen as the final solution to
\nany conflict or problem.<\/p>\n
And what of the fate of the Papuan rebels who were killed by
\nTNI soldiers on Wednesday? If after seeing the picture a person
\ncan still say there is nothing wrong with four soldiers treating
\na corpse in this manner, then we may conclude that there is
\nsomething wrong with that person's mind.<\/p>\n
Indonesia calls itself a civilized and religious nation whose
\nlife is guided by the sacred state ideology of Pancasila. We tend
\nto link our mystery to our destiny, which was decided by God upon
\nour birth.<\/p>\n
But look at what Nabiel said after branding illegal loggers
\nterrorists. He clearly showed no interest in doing anything more
\nthan talking. \"It is difficult to combat illegal logging because
\nwe must face the financial backers and their shameless
\nprotectors, from the Indonesian armed forces and police, and from
\nother government agencies.\"<\/p>\n
The last question then is: Who is responsible for all these
\ntragedies?<\/p>\n
A remark by Amien Rais, speaker of the People's Consultative
\nAssembly, is interesting to note in this case: \"Things are just
\nlike a fart; invisible but spreading a foul smell everywhere.\"<\/p>",
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