A war against injustice is equally important

Joe Fernandez, Institute for Policy and Community Development Studies, Jakarta

Terrorism must be fought at all costs because it threatens humanity. But it needs the precise strategy and a mass movement involving all nations.

The issue is pointing a finger at the main cause of terrorism which has been pervasive particularly throughout the last three decades. People may remember the "Black September" group which held hostage and killed 11 Israeli athletes in Munich at the 1972 Olympics. This incident marked the beginning of modern terrorism on an international scale.

There may be some truth in the "clash of civilizations" discussed by Samuel P. Huntington, who observed the shift of world powers and confrontations of civilizations throughout the 20th century.

Yet above all, conflicts still are about injustice, mainly regarding power and wealth. This has led to continuous conflict in the Middle East, the Kashmir valley, the Balkans and a number of places in the African continent.

On a smaller scale, similar conflicts are found in the form of rebellions and separatist movements within countries. Injustice leads to great losses for a number of parties, mainly among the suppressed, while it favors a small powerful group.

The ensuing marginalization is supported by hate and frustration, contributing to militancy or radicalism.

Efforts by members to uphold the existence or values of such militant groups become more valuable than their own lives. Militancy -- or patriotism when those involved become martyrs -- becomes the main fuel of terrorism. Suicide groups like those of Sept. 11 are incomprehensible to common sense but can be traced to the above "patriotism" perceived from an imbalanced world system.

The "welfare economist" Amartya Sen wrote that economic, social and political injustice were causes of poverty.

The lack of freedom including the choice for decent living because of constraints posed by a political, social and economic structure lead to "structural poverty."

The "deprivation of capabilities", Sen wrote, is the source of structural poverty which is maintained by those in power and who have excessive privileges.

Militancy and terrorism have never been far from the above injustice and poverty. The United States' war against terrorism, which has never known a neutral zone, will be increasingly difficult because terror flourishes everywhere that marginalization and revenge are found.

The U.S. will find that its call to war will not gain warm support from nations which have felt belittled by U.S. dominance. Countries of the West, which President George W. Bush referred to as free societies, must assist in easing the social and economic burden of many nations.

Unfortunately the U.S. is using two different faces in treating the oppressed in the East, the Muslim or the Arab world and the Balkans, as indicated in its Mideast policy.

The delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid through Afghanistan through United Nations bodies or the International Red Cross was conducted simultaneously with the deployment of its Tomahawks, war ships and bombers from Diego Garcia.

With one hand attempting to hit the Taliban, and another feeding the Afghans, Bush's attempt to prove that he is fighting terrorism, not the Afghan people, is futile.

The image remains -- that Bush and his government apply a double standard in fighting terrorism.

A better measure on the part of the U.S. may be to try help reduce the injustice, based on its spirit of egalitarianism. The most important reflection from the world's changes after Sept. 11 may be the need to review the spirit of hegemony through capitalism, and the U.S. desire to become the world's policeman.

A paradigm is urgently needed to overcome injustice and poverty -- on the global and also national scale. Fighting structural poverty on these levels is equally important to fighting terrorism.

Indonesia's difficulty is also related to this global imbalance. But what is more important is that its government, in its desire to join the war against terrorism, also has the political commitment to overcome the injustice found within its own society.