After Ambon, Medan?

After Ambon, Medan?

The bomb blasts that jolted Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday
and Monday morning bring to attention some disturbing
similarities with those that rocked Ambon, in Maluku, a few years
ago. North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin, for example,
told reporters he had been informed they were "of the same type"
as those in Maluku.

There are other similarities. In both provinces, the Muslim
and Christian populations are more or less equal in number, both
are regional centers of commerce and industry, and in both,
religious tolerance so far has been good.

Little wonder that the authorities in Medan were quick to
notice on Sunday the parallels and acted swiftly to prevent any
further repeat of the Ambon tragedy in the North Sumatran
provincial capital.

A meeting was called between police and military leaders with
local administrative and religious leaders, after which North
Sumatra's Police chief Sutanto told the public to remain calm and
not to fall prey to provocation. The incidents, he said, were
clearly the work of provocateurs trying to stir up sectarian
violence similar to that in the riot-torn province of Maluku.

The secretary-general of the North Sumatra chapter of the
Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), A.R. Pardede, and the
chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), Mahmud Azis
Siregar, also called on the public to refrain from blowing the
incidents out of proportion.

Which is, of course, the only right thing to do. In the case
of there being some hidden grand scenario behind the bombings,
religion, after all, has little to do with the actual violence.
But religion being a factor with such huge emotional potential,
lends itself perfectly to being used as a means to trigger
violence -- a fact that many Indonesians still fail to realize.

But whether or not the blasts that occurred on Sunday and
Monday were indeed the work of provocateurs, as the authorities
seem to believe, is something that only an investigation can
prove. So far, not a single provocateur has been unmasked,
although certainly it is difficult to see how anyone with a sane
mind could plant bombs, unless he or she had some definite
objective in mind.

The swift initial action on the part of the security officers
and the apparent calm with which the public in Medan seems to be
taking these latest incidents, therefore, deserve to be lauded.
One may recall how, in Ambon, it was a simple personal argument
between a local minibus driver and a resident -- a settler --
that appeared to have sparked the conflagration that, up to this
day, may have claimed as many as 3,000 lives. It always pays to
be prepared.

It is interesting, meanwhile, in this context, to consider the
Soeharto factor as yet another element that may or may not have
something to do with the blasts. Every time Soeharto is made to
suffer an indignity, so the theory goes, something happens.

In this instance, it is the constant student demonstrations
and the proposal to move the former president from the comfort of
his house in Central Jakarta to a safer place that is supposed to
have moved his mysterious supporters to act. From the string of
incidents that have happened so far, one would almost be led to
believe that such a relationship indeed exists.

Be that as it may, let us hope that Indonesians in Medan and
elsewhere have learned from the lessons of Maluku and also of
Sulawesi and Kalimantan. It is time this nation learned to accept
diversity as a blessing and an asset, rather than a liability
that must be eliminated. Only by doing so, will it be possible to
prevent upheavals similar to those that have happened -- and are
still happening -- in Maluku and elsewhere in this archipelago.