Aligning with Soehartoism won't end bombings, terror

Aligning with Soehartoism won't end bombings, terror

Max Lane, Visiting Fellow, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

Indonesia is in a process of transition out of the period of
dictatorship during the presidency of Gen. (ret) Soeharto. This
process of transition is occurring in the midst of a severe and
continuing economic crisis, often seen to be linked to
globalization.

The transition has already been marked by political
volatility: A president has been ousted in a virtually
unconstitutional manner; a war has been declared in Aceh; there
are armed conflicts in Maluku and Papua; support for the
president and all the major parties is declining; there are
protests from all sectors of society every day. There has been
two serious bombings of public places in a period of 11 months.

It is unlikely that the transition out of volatility will be
over within a decade.

The Howard government's has renewed military cooperation with
Jakarta, including with the army's special forces. This policy is
an extension of the Australian government's statement of support
for president Megawati Soekarnoputri's military solution to
Aceh's political situation.

In this way, Howard has decided to stand with Megawati and the
hangers on from the Soeharto order against all those voices of the
newly emerging Indonesia who want the military to withdraw and
who are striving for an end to state violence and coercion in
politics.

The transition out of dictatorship -- a dictatorship which all
Australian governments supported and lauded -- has not been and
is not some kind of automatic sociological process. It has been
and still is the result of a political struggle by Soeharto, the
groups around him and the groups that still think like him
against a new generation of Indonesians wanting a different,
democratic future. Soeharto did not bow out voluntarily he was
forced to go by hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating on
the street.

But Soeharto's going did not end this struggle. The Megawati
government represents an essential continuity with the Soeharto
mentality constrained only by a stronger pro-democratic public.
In the Politics and Security Committe of her Cabinet are herself;
the Vice President Hamzah Haz, head of the conservative Islamic
party forged by Soeharto during the dictatorship; the national
police chief and several Soeharto Generals: Hendripriyono, Hari
Sabarno, and Bambang Yudhoyono.

It is not surprising then that Megawati is implementing a
military solution to the political problem of self-determination
in Aceh; that there are more political prisoners in goal now than
in the last years of Soeharto; that almost no military have been
convicted for human right violations under Soeharto and that no
human rights charges have been brought against Soeharto himself.

But democratic sentiment in opposition to the government
remains strong. This is most obvious around issues of state and
military violence. Over the last few weeks more and more
Indonesians from the democratic camp have criticized the military
operations in Aceh. These include the prominent writers WS
Rendra, Ratna Sarumapet, Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Goenawan
Mohamad. The Aceh Commission of the National Human Rights
Commission has been increasingly critical.

Prominent labor and political leaders like Dita Indah Sari
have called for an end to the war. There have been peace vigils,
and even a peace concert involving pop groups and jazz singers
echoing this sentiment. Journalists have often been at the
forefront of these criticisms also.

These are the voices of change that represent the next
Indonesia. All public opinion polls also show rejection of the
old elites and a longing for something new.

The Megawati government, encouraged by the Howard government,
continues to rely on violent coercion, that is terror, in Aceh,
in Papua and often against farmers and poor workers.

Can anybody expect that there will not be some people, often
driven to inhuman irrationality by desperation, hopelessness, or
alienation generated by the deep poverty and humiliation of an
economy in crisis, who decide to reply in kind? The current
policies, which depend on violence and coercion, will bring no
end to bombing incidents.