A reflection on military violence

A reflection on military violence

By Harkiman Racheman

MEDAN (JP): Despite some of the phenomenal changes that have
taken place within the current administration, the Habibie-led
Indonesia is currently witnessing numerous scenes and acts of
violence occurring in different parts of the country. The most
recent incidents of violence would include the Acehnese and the
East Timorese rebellions against the Indonesian Armed Forces.

What these cases of violence indicate is that the biggest
contribution of the Indonesian Military (TNI) has been toward
using legalized violence against ordinary citizens. The violence
has been shrewdly identified by a staunch critic of the New Order
and Habibie administrations Lt. Gen (ret) Ali Sadikin as having
had a "strong culture" in the Indonesian Military for a long
time. (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 25.)

Due to the increasingly besmirched image of the military, no
one would for instance, question why the East Timorese Nobel co-
laureate Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo accused the military
of having masterminded the present anti-proindependence East
Timorese aggression in Dili.

To the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, Belo said that the
horrific killings in East Timor were in fact a "very real attack
planned around a table by the Indonesian Military" who control
"the militias like pawns" (the Post, Sept. 8).

Most acts of military violence in the country assume different
shapes and sizes. They may at times appear as a sheer
implementation of routine military orders, but, at other times as
legalized or organized human exploitation. However, when
perceived at a much deeper level, those organized crimes are
simply abhorrent incidents of violence as they all implicitly
reflect the same modus operandi.

Basically, there is a kind of recurrent pattern or operational
mode which heavily characterizes any expressions or eruptions of
military violence. This pattern, therefore, needs to be disclosed
so that the anatomy of the so-called "culture of violence" in the
military can become essential public knowledge.

It needs to be stressed at the outset that incidents of mass
violence in Indonesia are almost always conducted by officially
recognized institutions and, hence, the people associated with
them. These violence-initiating institutions often possess
absolute control, limitless power, as well as unrestricted
authority over the majority of people.

In other words, those who take the initiative to use violence
in the country are likely to be an official organization, or its
elements, and could easily avoid committing the acts in the first
place.

In Indonesia, as it is widely acknowledged, the only official
institution which has a limitless monopoly of power is the
Indonesian Military. The fact that Gen. Wiranto was capable of
"forcing" President B.J. Habibie to approve a proposal for
declaring at midnight on Sept. 7 the military state of emergency
in East Timor, despite the Cabinet plenary meeting's opposition
to the move, speaks for itself.

"It is scary to think," said the Post in its editorial on
Sept. 8, 1999, "that we are giving carte blanche to an
institution with a long history of human rights abuses, not only
in East Timor but elsewhere in Indonesia, including Aceh".

The general assumption has now been proven: that widespread
violence is likely to continue in the same frequency and
intensity if the military, just like now, are maintained as the
unchallenged sole holder of excessive power over the civilian
populace. Like it or not, as the well-known cliche goes, if
anything, power only tends to corrupt.

But why should the military continue to tread the way of
violence to achieve its goals? Hasn't it been obvious enough that
violence only climaxes in sheer anarchy or total destruction for
all? Wouldn't it be sensible to expect peaceful mutual
compromises without having to recourse to any counterproductive
force? Wouldn't it be sensible to find ways that are truly
acceptable by any civilized society?

The answers to those oft-raised questions are surprisingly
quite straightforward even though many may not have realized
them. In the first place, military firmness has all this time
been traditionally associated with the seemingly necessary use of
force. In addition to that, the "effective" use of violence has
so far overwhelmed military personnel so additively that their
external communication has been largely through the language of
violence and intimidation.

The misuse of violence by especially elements of the military
in solving matters is still rampant. To the general public, it is
evident that the violent nature of military personnel is so
spontaneous that they would not bother to curtail their
behavior. However, let us not forget that the price to pay for
the harm it causes is tremendous. When violence is used as "a
means" in itself, by largely neglecting the humanitarian aim
underlying any action, the military only inflicts unbearable
long-term suffering upon the already oppressed and terrified
people.

Additionally, the so far "successful" use of violence -- a
false teaching handed down from the Soeharto-style military
leadership -- has given rise to a great deal of addicts of
violence. These trained professionals, accordingly, often find
themselves overusing force in carrying out their duties to
maintain peace and order. And, the worst of it occurs when
excessive force is used to deal with unarmed civilian protesters
such as student demonstrators. The Trisakti and Semanggi
tragedies are self-explanatory indeed.

Are the general public, then, to blame if they have conjured
up in their empirical minds such an ugly image of the Indonesian
Military? Is it not true that the military is in actual fact a
highly organized armed organization that is likely to abuse power
and force? Would they be blamed for assuming that the military
was, is, and will always be, behind obviously engineered social
upheavals?

What breaks our heart even more as a nation is the fact that
this unfavorable image of the Indonesian Military has
unfortunately developed all the more aggressively in the outside
world. This can be seen in the case of the British Foreign
Affairs minister's statement concerning the brutal killings in
post-referendum East Timor to BBC radio.

"We are all appalled and alarmed," said Robin Cook, "at the
murder of innocent civilians, by the brutality that's going on
now in East Timor, and the evidence is that the Indonesian
security forces are not intervening and indeed may themselves be
helping the militias who are carrying out the brutality" (the
Post, Sept. 8).

The problem is when those continuous practices of military
violence cannot any longer be rationalized by their victims, it
is feared that they will undergo severe accumulative frustration.
If destructive forces are continuously used by military power-
manipulators who show no interest in alternative and nonviolent
measures, the human casualties they cause will be so thoroughly
incapable of comprehending the physical ordeal imposed on them
that they may eventually explode in socially self-destructive
anarchy.

In a narrower context, if innocent members of society are
mistreated by military forces over a long period of time, they
will surely accumulate their sense of frustration and despair in
order to release them collectively in the form of colossal social
riots and calamities. And, if the ruling authorities fail to
again grasp the substance of the matter, a tendency to social
revolt and banditry are inevitable.

That is why the acts of violence by the pro-Jakarta East
Timorese militias must be stopped now before it is too late. The
civilian casualties cannot be expected to endure the inhuman
killings for very much longer. It is just a matter of time before
the pro-independence East Timorese will come out of their closets
for an equally crazed retaliation. When this happens, even United
Nations peacekeeping forces may not be able to do much to end an
even more horrific bloody civil war.

But what can we do to solve the East Timorese tragedy? While a
perfect answer may well be difficult at this time, it is clear
that deconstructing and rebuilding the violence-laden mentality
of the East Timorese warring factions can never happen overnight,
and certainly not through military violence.

There is an axiomatic reality that violence cannot end by
violence. The East Timorese violence can only be alleviated and
gradually abolished by reciprocal tolerance and gentleness.
Otherwise, the violence and hatred circle will continue to roll
on endlessly, but, with increasing pain and suffering on the part
of innocent children, women and other civilians.

Similarly, the civil society we are hoping to establish in a
future Indonesia can never be realized through similar military
force or intimidation. Very strong foundations such as democracy,
fully protected human rights, supremacy of law, as well as social
justice, are truly essential in order to make that ideal society
happen. Therefore, it would make little sense to attempt a final
settlement to the age-old East Timorese problem by way of
reinventing or reengineering new means of violence.

Thus, please stop all the violence now, and cease the culture
of violence structurally associated with the Indonesian Military.
The general public should now unite to stage mass rallies for
peaceful objections and protests against any forms of structural
use of force and intimidation in Indonesia.

In the mean time, the winning reformist political parties
should pioneer efforts for the entire population to take measures
in order to realize a nonviolent Indonesia. It is high time that
we as a nation showed the international community that, despite
those incidents in Ambon, Aceh and East Timor and so forth, that
the majority of our people abhor violence and are in fact peace-
loving.

The rightful East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana"
Gusmao assured Indonesia that the winning East Timorese would not
project enmity toward Indonesian people. After his recent
release, Xanana said from the British Embassy in Jakarta where he
was sheltering that despite his struggle against the oppressive
Indonesian military system that had "antagonized" the people of
East Timor, "at no point, have we fought against the people of
Indonesia". (The Post, Sept. 8, 1999.)

In the mean time, we must take advantage of the momentum and
use the remaining opportunities and momentum quickly and
appropriately in order to show the international community our
true colors. We must demonstrate that despite all the mistakes
and shortcomings of the Armed Forces, the majority of the
Indonesian people, many of whom are also victims of violence,
completely reject all kinds of violence, military or civilian, in
East Timor and elsewhere. Or, we will continue to be remembered
as a nation of rapists, corruptors, invaders and aggressors.

The writer is a graduate from Victoria University in
Wellington, New Zealand. Based in Medan, he is currently a
freelance writer and university lecturer.