Blind nationalism
Blind nationalism
Nationalism, in the narrowest sense of the term, has reared
its ugly head once again in this country this past week with the
latest row between Indonesia and the United Nations. The climax
was Monday's attack on a car carrying UN officials after they
visited the House of Representatives in Jakarta. The assailants,
invoking the red-and-white national flag, were protesting against
the United Nations' plan to question a number of Indonesian
Military and National Police officers in connection with the
mayhem in East Timor last year. The message that they conveyed to
the UN visitors in such a rude manner was that the planned UN
investigation amounted to interference in Indonesia's domestic
affairs.
The Indonesian government, in this case, Attorney General
Marzuki Darusman, had apparently signed an agreement allowing the
UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) to question
Indonesians as part of its investigations into crimes committed
last year when the province was still administered by Indonesia.
The agreement was reciprocal. Indonesian authorities could, in
their own pursuit of justice, conduct investigations in East
Timor.
Lawyers for the 22 military and police officers whom UNTAET
wanted to question last week refused to allow their clients to
meet with the UN investigators. Besides invoking nationalism and
insisting that Indonesian officers were only answerable to the
laws of the land, the lawyers questioned the validity of the
agreement that Marzuki signed with UNTAET. On Tuesday, Indonesian
Military (TNI) chief Admiral Widodo A.S. put more pressure on
Marzuki, who has already been accused of selling out the nation,
by saying that he would not permit any TNI officer, presumably
active or retired, to meet with the UNTAET investigators.
As in the past, nationalism has again been used effectively to
obstruct the pursuit of truth and justice, the objective of the
UNTAET exercise. Again, nationalist elements, with a little help
from their friends in the media, have construed the word
nationalism in its narrowest sense, and have mobilized the public
to shield a small group of people.
Typically, by playing the nationalist card and attacking the
legality of Marzuki's agreement with UNTAET, the proponents have
diverted attention away from the substance of the matter: the
pursuit of justice. They have instead turned the heat on Marzuki,
and away from the people who really should be held accountable
for their misdeeds in East Timor.
We have seen such misuses of nationalism happen too many times
in this country in the past. What is sad about this practice is
that while it has shielded some people from having to answer or
account for their actions before a court of justice, it has done
irreparable damage to Indonesia's credibility and reputation as a
member of the international community.
This episode has renewed questions about Indonesia's
commitment or ability to see that justice is upheld in this
country, something that any decent member of the international
community should be able to guarantee. The government's failure
to present the officers for questioning could even be construed
as an obstruction of international justice.
The international community has already given the benefit of
the doubt to Indonesia in connection with the investigation into
how the Indonesian Military failed to protect lives and property
shortly after the East Timorese voted for independence in August
last year. It has also given the benefit of the doubt to
Indonesia with regard to the investigation of the murder of three
UN relief workers in Atambua, the refugee town close to the East
Timor border.
Resisting pressure for an international tribunal, Indonesia
has insisted on conducting its own investigations in both cases.
But the investigations, like all other politically-charged cases
in this country, have been painfully slow. International patience
must have its limits, and one suspects that it is fast wearing
thin, especially after the latest episode.
If Indonesia continues to fail to live up to its minimum
obligation as a member of the international community to uphold
justice, the world will be forced to establish an international
tribunal to try the perpetrators of last year's human rights
violations in East Timor. Since the government seems to be
completely incompetent, incapable or unwilling in respect of the
conducting of its investigations, we could perhaps ask the
international tribunal to hear all of the many other cases of
human rights abuses in this country which have been left pending
for too long.