Beyond the war on terror: Opportunity for Indonesia?
Beyond the war on terror: Opportunity for Indonesia?
Daromir Rudnyckyj, Jakarta
Three years have elapsed since U.S. President George W. Bush,
perhaps somewhat presumptively, proclaimed a "war on terror." At
the time the hasty rush to war distressed many, both within
Indonesia and outside. Indeeed it is becoming obvious that
little strategic planning went into determining how such a war
might actually be won.
Today it is becoming painfully apparent that Bush's "war on
terror" is not getting closer to achieving its goals. Terrorist
attacks against largely innocent civilians have increased in
number and scale since 2001. In this year alone brazen attacks
attributed to terrorists have struck Madrid, Istanbul,
Casablanca, Beslan, and now Jakarta, to name but a few. Osama
bin Laden remains at large.
Recently, before his political party's quadrennial convention
President Bush, in a moment of rare candor, finally suggested
that he did not expect that his "war on terror" would actually be
won. Although the statement was altered in the inevitable cycle
of spin that followed, a crack may have emerged for alternative
resolutions to this pressing global conflagration.
It is as if in the escalating war between Bush and bin Laden
from each act of horror perpetrated by one side, the other side
draws its strength. Whether it be the ruins of a wedding party
in Iraq or the shattered bodies and shattered glass in front of
Jakarta's Marriott hotel, each act of grotesque violence served
up on CNN or Al-Jazeera seems to serve as a rallying cry for the
other side. Each draws its virulence from the brutality of the
other. The losers are those caught in between, waiting for a
bus, en route to a university lecture, or inspecting vehicles
entering a diplomatic building.
Indonesia, the site of some of the most ghastly horrors in the
war between Bush and bin Laden, occupies a unique and perhaps
fortuitous position. The country simultaneously looks to Mecca
and Hollywood and sings along with both MTV and popular Muslim
vocalist Haddad Alwi.
In Indonesia's cities and towns, one is just as likely to
encounter graduates of the great universities of the Middle East,
like Cairo's Al-Azhar or the University of Baghdad, as one is to
meet graduates of American or European institutions of higher
learning.
Many Indonesians have no problem tuning in to television shows
like American Idol after they have finished their Maghrib prayers
or combining the latest American business management ideas with
centuries-old passages from the Qur'an. Science and religion are
held in a dynamic, creative, and potentially productive tension.
In its ability to understand something of the society and
politics of the Middle East and something of those of western
countries, Indonesia may hold a key to reconciling the escalating
cycle of violence associated with the "war on terror."
Most significantly, Indonesia can now lay claim to the title
of the world's largest democracy with a Muslim majority
population. This title offers prospective Indonesian leaders a
unique opportunity in resolving the current conflict, as it is
Islam that is either misunderstood on the one side or mistakenly
invoked on the other.
Although such an initiative might at first appear somewhat
farfetched given Indonesia's ongoing uneven economic and
political transition, it would not be unprecedented. Indonesia's
first President, Sukarno adroitly wove together a broad coalition
of non-aligned nations at a historic conference in Bandung, just
six short, shaky years after achieving full independence from
colonial rule. The movement sought to offer a third alternative
to the great global political struggle of Sukarno's era, the Cold
War.
In the immediate aftermath of the Australian embassy bombing,
Indonesia's highest public officials vowed to "hunt down and
capture" its perpetrators. While such a response is predictable,
if unimaginative, it would seem that amidst the ruins of Jl.
Rasuna Said, the opportunity emerged for a perhaps more proactive
response to the problem of terrorism.
Perhaps a reincarnation of something like the Non-aligned
Movement might propose an alternative to the "war on terror" and
its opposite. A movement of this nature might seek to get beyond
the simple Manichean opposition of "you're either with us or
against us" that appears to have only exacerbated retrenchment
into one of two mutually suspicious and openly hostile camps.
A broad coalition of medium powers that continue to
experience first hand the bloody effects terrorism, might be able
to forge consensus and common ground around the open sore that
continues to excite feelings of animosity and distrust: peace
between Palestine and Israel.
Potential members of this coalition might include Spain,
Morocco, Turkey, Russia and Indonesia, to name but a few. The
details are left to the experts, but given the failure of U.S.-
led efforts to forge peace in the Middle East it is high time for
a new coalition of mediating parties to begin anew.
Whichever candidate is elected president on Monday, the newly
anointed leader will have the first directly democratic mandate
in Indonesia's history. This mandate can benefit not only
citizens of Indonesia, but also citizens of the world, in taking
bold steps to resolve the current conflagration. Six years after
the end of authoritarian, one-party rule, Indonesia's leaders
will stand on the brink of a tremendous opportunity to rechart
the political response to terrorism.
Prof. Azyumardi Azra, rector of the State Islamic University
in Jakarta, has referred to Indonesia as "a sleeping giant".
Perhaps this most recent terrorist attack might awaken this giant
to assume a leading role on the world stage, forging a new path
in the escalating conflict. A path that is not dependent on one
side of the current war violently annihilating the other, with
too many innocent people caught in between.
The writer is Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the
University of California currently conducting research on Islam
and Political Economy in Indonesia. He can be reached at
daromir@alumni.uchicago.edu