Civil society must stop war

Aguswandi, Indonesia Human Rights Campaign TAPOL, London

The scholar Kirsten Schulze was right to point out that the conflict in Aceh after all is political (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 28). Unless the political problem is settled, the war in Aceh will never end. This is also the case with the conflicts in Papua and in other places in Indonesia.

It was inadequate, if not altogether wrong, for Schulze if she hoped that Indonesian politicians and the military would be able to solve the political problem in Aceh. The conflict will not end until the root causes are removed. The removal of the causes -- injustice, an unfair structural relationship between Aceh and Jakarta, and the stress towards a militaristic approach and its implications -- requires imagination and intelligence that the government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the military are simply incapable of providing.

In the case of Aceh, the government has not been able to come up with any clear political solution, and merely repeats the mistakes of previous administrations, by allowing the military to wage a war in Aceh. War is always good to show that something is being done -- which is even more important to boost the political popularity of a weak government.

The lack of the government's political imagination is also evident in West Papua. Unable to settle the problem there, the government has decided to divide the territory into three provinces, leading to clashes and serious deterioration in the territory. The government has even rejected the request from locals for a genuine dialog.

The government's failure in Aceh and West Papua shows that other elements must take the lead. Civil society seems to be the only group capable of playing a significant role, and must thus make its voice heard in response to the political crises.

Mainstream approaches have neglected the involvement of civil society. As a result, peace in Aceh was short-lived and fragile, and in the end it collapsed. The people have a greater potential for solving Aceh's political problem in a more civilized and comprehensive way -- because they are more interested in people than territory. The discourse in the Aceh conflict is not about national self-determination, but about people's self- determination.

Everybody should be encouraged to talk about people, because if we continue to put territory above people, many groups will continue killing each other.

In Papua, the conflict has also created a new generation concerned about the people's future, and who now lead the peace movement. They aim for dialog with Jakarta to solve all political disputes about the past, the present and the future.

Other Indonesians have to be a partner in this civil society engagement. Indonesians should not let the military and the government go on convincing them that military operation is the only possible answer to the political crises.

History teaches us how military solutions have been a big mistake such as Aceh, West Papua and East Timor. Far from a source of stability, the military has been a source of instability, violence and disintegration in Indonesia.

Therefore, Indonesia's civil society should take the lead. Its involvement is urgent since they are also victims of the conflicts. Also, lowly paid and untrained soldiers have been sent to war and many have died for "nationhood" in the narrow sense of merely preserving territory, a myth perpetuated by the corrupt government and generals in Jakarta who have wreaked destruction on Acehnese, Papuans and other Indonesians.

In a time of economic crisis, while there is no money for development, education, and health services, it turns out there is still large amounts of money to send troops to conflict areas.

State funds which should be spent on eradicating poverty, unemployment and saving lives are instead being used to buy high- tech weaponry to destroy "the enemy" -- including innocent people in Aceh and West Papua. Despite years of struggle by many Indonesians for a free press and intellectual debate, public opinion is now being manipulated to gain legitimacy for the war.

Civil society -- Acehnese, West Papuans and other Indonesians -- must solve these political crises for the sake of a peaceful future. We should stop hoping that the government will be able to solve them, because it does not have the creativity to do so. The politicians and military are only interested in the territories, not the people -- at whatever cost.

Indonesian civil society must engage directly in an open dialog about the kind of society and the kind of Indonesia it wants to create, because all of us deserve something better than what we have now.

The writer is an Acehnese human rights campaigner working as a researcher for TAPOL (Political Prisoner).