Civil society must stop war

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).