1996 marked by political tension and violence

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.