ABRI defuses tension with food bazaar

By Ridwan Max Sijabat

BANDUNG (JP): Contrary to charges, the Armed Forces have not responded to intensifying demonstrations over staple food prices with force alone. Instead, the military go to places in Java where the economic crisis is biting hardest and distribute basic commodities, an officer says.

In cooperation with local businesspeople, regional military commands have been launching operations to provide basic commodities at below prevailing market prices, according to Maj. Gen. Djamari Chaniago, commander of the West Java Military Command.

This approach has been effective in preventing public unrest and violence, he told reporters.

The military has also established labor-intensive projects to absorb newly redundant workers, who now number around 2 million in Java, he said.

Estimates of the number of workers who have lost their jobs due to the monetary crisis range between two million and 13 million.

Chaniago said the West Java Military Command had secured 1,300 plots of vacant land in several areas of the province. Around 200 unemployed workers will be hired to cultivate the land at a wage of Rp 7,500 (less than US$1 per day.

"They will be employed to grow crops such as soybean and corn, based on a profit sharing system," he said.

He conceded that the West Java Military Command had failed to anticipate the food rioting in Majalengka and other locations along the border between West and Central Java earlier this year.

"But they provide us with a good lesson and will help prevent similar incidents in the future," he added.

Islam

More than 30 towns around Indonesia were rocked by food riots which deteriorated into looting and vandalism of shops owned by the ethnic Chinese minority, who dominate the nation's economy.

Officials, observers and military officers have attempted to explain why the riots took place. Some blame the incidents on faceless "third parties."

Djamari echoed this theory, saying the violence and student protests, which in some cases lead to clashes with security forces, had been provoked by a third party seeking to discredit the government and the military.

He said a small group campaigning for an independent Islamic state -- known as the NII or Indonesian Islamic State -- was behind the riots and protests. He also accused the group of coercing funds from local residents to finance their political activities.

"We have evidence (to back up the allegation). We call on the residents and students in the province to be wary of their campaign," he said.

Recalling the spread of the banned Islamic group DI/TII in the province, he added that West Java has a tradition of producing heretic Islamic groups.

Students

Chaniago said the West Java Military Command plans to continue trying to persuade students to end demonstrations and enter dialog on the crisis with the military.

He also warned the students against taking their protests onto the streets.

"The Armed Forces will be patient as long as the demonstrations are held on campus and do not slander the national leadership," he said.

Maj. Gen. Mardiyanto, the commander of the Diponegoro Military Command which oversees Central Java and Yogyakarta, said he was taking an approach similar to Chaniago to contain unrest in his jurisdiction.

"What we are doing complies with orders from the ABRI leadership," he said. "We will launch repressive measures only as the last resort."

"I believe that the people of Central Java still respect traditional Javanese values emphasizing brotherhood and togetherness. Any problems facing the nation can be solved, provided we are united," he said.

He conceded that a number of riots which took place in his jurisdiction over the past two months were caused by the severe impact of the monetary crisis, citing an incident last Wednesday in Jepara in which several soldiers and police officers joined rioters vandalizing shops and houses.

Mardiyanto, who will soon become assistant to the Armed Forces Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs, planned to defuse tension by holding dialog with student groups.

He said he had held several formal and informal discussions with student activists, rectors and government critics in the province to inform them of ABRIs stance on the situation.

"ABRI do not want radical reform because it would inflict too great a cost on the nation," he said. "ABRI supports gradual economic and political reform."

A slight variation in Armed Forces' tactics to contain the situation can be seen in East Java, where the military have solicited the cooperation of the province's youth in operations conducted around busy marketplaces.

Brig. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif, chief of staff of the Brawijaya Military Command, which supervises East Java and Madura, said that over the past three weeks, thousands of soldiers, students and staff from the provincial office of the State Logistics Agency have been deployed in traditional markets and shopping centers to prevent further rioting.

"Command-posts have been set up in markets and shopping centers in anticipation of riots targeting shop-owners," he said over the weekend.

He justified posting soldiers and police in local markets by saying that the province was prone to social unrest and rioting. Trouble hot-spots include Jember, Situbondo and several other coastal towns with populations of traditional farmers and fishermen.