1996 marked by political tension and violence

By Santi W.E. Soekanto

JAKARTA (JP): Despite an earlier warning by President Soeharto that every disorder, no matter what the cause, represents a setback for the country, this year has been marked by social, religious and political tension that erupted into riots and violence.

Earlier this month, for instance, hundreds of students of two Islamic boarding schools in the West Java town of Sukabumi attacked a resident's house which had functioned as a place of worship of another faith. Hurling stones, the students managed to wreck several cars and inflict damages on the house before they were shooed away by security officers.

The students originally intended to peacefully ask the house owner to stop inviting people from other places, including Jakarta, to worship there. Somewhere along the line, however, unidentified people provoked the students who then became vicious and started attacking the house.

A disturbing close to a year that began with violence.

Military

In March, for instance, dozens of people in Kwala Berkala subdistrict, Medan, North Sumatra, were injured and scores of houses and cars damaged in attacks conducted by members of Cavalry 6 assault battalion. The attacks were believed to have been motivated by the soldiers' wish for revenge for the death of a colleague, who was stabbed by a hoodlum.

Also in March, hundreds of youths ran amok in the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura after they were prevented from paying their last respects to the late separatist leader Thomas Wapay Wainggai, who died in a Jakarta prison.

During the incident, four people were killed, a marketplace housing mostly non-Irianese traders was torched, dozens of buildings were damaged and many cars set ablaze.

Still in March, the copper town of Timika in Irian Jaya was rocked by massive rioting. Fifteen people were injured when thousands of people attacked the office of Freeport mining company and houses belonging to its employees.

The military then blamed the riot on malicious rumors, but experts pointed out that perhaps social problems related to the operation of and the people's deep mistrust of the giant mining company there should be looked into as a plausible explanation.

The three incidents were a sad reminder of President Soeharto's message, delivered when the nation was bidding farewell to 1995.

Greeting the coming of 1996, Soeharto described how last year was marked with a number of upheavals in parts of Indonesia which forced the country to allocate energy and resources to deal with them and prevent them from reoccurring.

These upheavals had their origins in the diversity in cultures and backgrounds of Indonesian society, he said. "Whatever the reasons -- economic, social, cultural, religious or political -- every upheaval was clearly a setback for the nation as a whole," Soeharto said then.

"It is not easy to build, preserve and develop a national state in a country where the people are very diverse. Experience has shown that in a diverse society, there are seeds of unrest, big and small, which if not properly handled, could lead to upheaval.

"That is why each day, each month and each year that we pass without an upheaval is a national achievement which we must maintain," he said.

This message seemed to have gone unheeded when in April this year, a crowd of over 2,000 ran amok in the West Kalimantan subdistrict of Ngabang following rumors of an abduction of a Dayak man by a member of the Armed Forces. One person died while several others were injured when troops opened fire in self- defense.

Also in April, major rioting took place in the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang. Mobs of students, at one time as many as 10,000, launched a wave of street protests over the city administration's plan to increase the fare of pete-pete public transportation from Rp 300 (13 U.S. cents) to Rp 500.

The reason for the demonstration might sound petty, but the consequences were by no means trivial. The students went on a violent rampage, vandalizing buses and public property, and hurling insults and stones at riot police.

The students soon locked into clashes with security officers who entered college campuses in armored vehicles and armed with rattan sticks. Three students died with severe bruises on their bodies, and 12 officers went on to be court-martialled after the National Commission on Human Rights announced it had found evidence of violations of rights.

Ethnic

In June, a riot took place in Baucau regency, 120 kms east of the predominately Roman Catholic East Timor capital of Dili. Dozens of rioters, mostly youths, went on a rampage and attacked nonnatives. They also evicted traders, mostly Moslems from other provinces, from the town's market and ransacked the place.

This violence occurred despite an earlier call by Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the highest leader of the Roman Catholic community in East Timor, for greater dialog between the various religious communities in the province.

The former Portuguese colony had already been rocked by a series of disturbances last year, with demonstrators not only protesting against Indonesian rule, but also protesting against the presence of non-Catholic migrants who increasingly dominate the province's trade.

Also in June, an estimated 8,000 supporters of then chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri rallied in Jakarta streets protesting the party's government- backed splinter group. They clashed with security officers in front of Gambir railway station.

Rioting began after a number of unidentified people in black hurled stones at the troops. Riot police, followed by soldiers, then charged with batons and rattan sticks into the crowd, beating some protesters and breaking car windows. The protesters attempted to retaliate in kind by hurling stones.

Accounts of casualties varied. Jakarta military spokesman Lt. Col. Didi Supandi said 55 security personnel were injured, 25 of them seriously. The Megawati camp stated one PDI supporter died and 70 other supporters were injured, five of them critically.

Similar demonstrations in support of Megawati took place in other cities such as Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi, and Surabaya in East Java, paving the way for further, even bigger violence.

Social

Violence peaked in July.

It was this month that the Irian Jaya town of Nabire was jolted by two days of rioting involving 3,000 disgruntled job seekers. Three soldiers were injured, while around 100 office buildings, stores, homes and vehicles were destroyed by mobs. In addition, between 41 and 60 criminals escaped from prisons during the riot, though 37 were recaptured or turned themselves in.

Later on in the month, around 10,000 disgruntled workers from 10 companies in the Tandes industrial estate of Surabaya, East Java, took to the street demanding an increase in their daily wage from Rp 5,200 to Rp 7,000. Clashes became unavoidable as troops forcibly dispersed them; dozens were injured.

The authorities blamed the demonstration on activists of the outlawed Democratic People's Party (PRD), a small and allegedly leftist organization of students. In a statement, its leader, Budiman Sudjatmiko, demanded an overhaul of the political system, an end to military intervention in labor disputes, and the dismantling of the military's role in politics.

Dita Indah Sari, a female student, and two colleagues who helped organize the demonstration are currently facing trial for subversion.

Politics

The series of violence, however, peaked on July 27 when thousands of youths and activists clashed with hundreds of security troops armed with rattan sticks, iron bars and tear gas on the streets of Jakarta.

Later dubbed "Gray Saturday," that day saw some of the worst violence and rioting the capital ever experienced in the past two decades.

The rioting erupted following the forced takeover of the disputed headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) by troops and supporters of government-backed chairperson Soerjadi.

Students and youth activists as well as onlookers later went on a rampage, burning buses, buildings and cars. At least five people died, 149 others were injured, and 23 people are still missing. One of the victims, Sariwan, was found to have died of gunshot, despite the military's insistence that no shots had been fired that day.

The National Commission on Human Rights conducted its own investigation into the incident and concluded there had been grave violations of human rights that day. The body pointed out there had been violations of the freedom of association and assembly, freedom from fear, freedom from cruel and inhumane treatment, the right to life, the right to personal security, and the right to property.

The riot was followed by tense weeks in various parts of the country, especially in major cities such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Surabaya, as authorities cracked down on student activists blamed for the unrest.

The government made clear that the Democratic People's Party was behind the riot and brought its activists to court later in the year. The government's stance later shifted and chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko and his friends were no longer accused of masterminding the unrest, but of subversive activities of undermining the government.

Religious

Just as the nation thought the worst had passed and people could breathe easy, further violence occurred. This time it was in the form of religious tension. Some incidents never made headlines, mostly because of a government gag.

One of the most ugly instances of violence, however, occurred in October, when thousands of people in the small town of Situbondo, East Java, attacked local churches in a frenzy over a perceived religious slight. Five people were killed in the incident, while dozens of houses of worship, an orphanage and government offices were either burned down or damaged.

The incident was sparked following a local court session trying a local Moslem for blasphemy and slander against the late K.H. As'ad Syamsul Arifin, a respected ulema in East Java. Upset over what they believed was a too-light sentence demanded by the prosecutors, the mob tried to attack the defendant, Saleh.

The crowd turned wild after unidentified people shouted that Saleh was hidden in a church near the courthouse. They then went on a rampage that lasted for around five hours before troops moved in and contained the unrest.

Insight

Following the incidents of violence, government officials, experts, community leaders and activists of various fields scrambled to offer insight as to why the incidents occurred in the first place. Certain patterns could easily be detected in their explanations.

Military and other government officials invariably pointed the finger at individuals and organizations they believed instigated the violence. The riots in Ujungpandang were blamed on student activists who reportedly stepped out of line by taunting security officers with insults and stones. The rioting in Jakarta was blamed on the Democratic People's Party and others from leftist organizations striving to undermine the government.

Experts offered different explanations, but usually pinned the blame on government policies on various matters, including its meddling in PDI internal affairs.

Other insights were also offered, including the deepening social disparity and other problems such as corrupt officials and leaders. Political and social observers have said that even without the PDI conflict, violence was bound to happen if only for people to let off steam.

A political observer offered yet another explanation: that most of the violence, in particular the attacks on churches in Situbondo, were either contrived or effects of conflicts which occurred in the political elite. It this perspective is correct, then an Indonesian proverb seems to hold true: when two powerful "elephants" fight, it is usually the small, innocent "mousedeer" that gets caught in the middle and is squeezed to death.

There is, however, a detail that from time to time cropped up during all the violence; namely, the presence of "unidentified people" who, by words or actions, managed to galvanize the mobs into destructiveness. Social psychologists say that people lose their individuality when they become part of a crowd. These "unidentified people" knew how to manipulate this to obtain whatever their interests were.