Be fair for once

Be fair for once

Although I am a 'red-and-white' citizen inside-out, I still
think that we cannot close our eyes to our own mistakes,
negligence and indecisiveness. This is important for our own
efforts in improving our performance.

The attack on the USA by our Minister of Defense, in which he
stated that the U.S. arms embargo is to blame for the Sampit
strife is not completely fair (The Jakarta Post, March 27, Page
1). In my opinion, even without this embargo, the ethnic strife
in Sampit would still have occurred. I admit that perhaps the
slow resolution of this strife might have been caused partially
by the embargo, but there are other factors contributing to this.

We should not forget that the U.S. arms embargo was hailed by
young Indonesians who blindly hate the military, as expressed by
Mr. Munir of The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) in June 2000, and supported by other NGOs.
They even wrote a letter to Senator Mitch McConnel, a member of
the Senate Appropriations Committee and Sony Callahan of the
House Appropriations Committee, to stop cooperation with the
Indonesian Military.

So our Minister of Defense should also blame those young
people, who supported the stopping of military cooperation
between the USA and the military, until democratic life in
Indonesia is established. But when will this be if the young
people themselves resort to demonstrating every time there is
some difference of opinion, followed by undemocratic, destructive
actions. Democracy teaches us to be tolerant, honor the law and
maintain ethnics in our attempt to achieve these ideals.
Neglecting the law and casting aside ethics is the same as
suicide, said Prof. Dr. Ryaas Rasyid.

Another thing our Minister should consider as a stumbling
block in solving separatist and ethnic problems is the lack of
courage and the indecisive attitude of our present government in
making decisions.

After years of rebellion (a commander of the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) proclaimed proudly that he started the rebellion
in 1976) and only after the commander of the Army Strategic
Command gave a tough statement, our government declared the GAM a
separatist movement that should be dealt with resolutely. But
again so far we only have heard a statement and a plan described
as a "limited military operation", the meaning of which is still
a mystery, while the government is still unsure what to do. The
only clarification given is that this limited military operation
is directed only to armed civilians and the GAM rebels and not to
the population in general.

This is a rather painful statement for the military to make,
as though the military when conducting military operations also
makes civilians its target. Even now this limited operation might
be canceled by the government, because it has been rejected by
the Aceh community and even the governor is very sure that it
will be canceled (Suara Karya, March 27).

Politicians are not very happy when the military stay strong
but in their heart of hearts they are also afraid if the military
crumbles and become a useless and weak organization. The military
has again and again expressed its decision to quit the practical
arena and concentrate on becoming a professional military
organization. But this honest statement fell on deaf ears.

I am of the opinion that we should also recognize our own
mistakes and shortcomings, rather than blame others. When we had
the PRRI/PERMESTA rebellions we were facing a hostile USA, which
openly supported the rebels. But we had a government that knew
what to do, stuck to its decisions and could finish the rebellion
with its own limited materiel.

This should be a valuable lesson for our government to make up
its mind and for once stick to it and not try to find a scapegoat
for our own shortcomings.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta