Conspiracies are all around us

Conspiracies are all around us

JAKARTA (JP): "There is a conspiracy of silence," thundered
economist Sjahrir accusingly, commenting on the Bank Bali
scandal. By the way, this infamous case is now referred to in the
press as Baligate. If I were Balinese I would object to the use
of the name of my beautiful island in connection with such a
scandalous case.

True, Bank Bali-gate is not as catchy sounding, so how about
BB-gate? Of course, you may get a protest from Brigitte Bardot,
as BB used to be her nickname.

To get back to conspiracies, when in mid-1997 the monetary
crisis hit Thailand, the authorities in Indonesia went their own
merry way as if it had nothing to do with them: A conspiracy of
(misplaced) confidence. Even today, as many have noted, top
government officials continue with business as usual. When the
wave of the crisis hit Indonesia's shores, the inhabitants of
Jakarta were the first to feel its impact.

In the beginning of January 1998, there was suddenly a rush on
supermarkets, like a locust attack, and in a couple of days even
the shelves of the huge hypermarkets were bare.

To dampen this panic buying, the authorities got in the act by
forming a conspiracy of misinformation and disinformation. No,
they said, there is no need to worry. Besides, it is a crime to
stock up on basic necessities. However, food lines appeared,
people standing in line for hours under the hot sun to get rice,
cooking oil and sugar.

In some areas riots occurred which, in a way, were instigated
by the authorities, as they accused store owners of hoarding
goods: A conspiracy of scapegoating.

Then the horrifying days of May 13 to May 15, 1998, when
Jakarta exploded in an orgy of rioting and looting and burning of
shopping centers and business and residential areas, mostly owned
by Chinese-Indonesians. When it was disclosed that sexual
assaults, including gang rapes, of ethnic Chinese women and girls
also occurred, the authorities, both military and civil, closed
ranks, denying that Indonesians, being religious people, could
commit such despicable and horrendous acts: A conspiracy of
denial.

This conspiracy of denial, coupled with a conspiracy of
scapegoating and a conspiracy of procrastination -- in the hope
that people would become discouraged and just give up pursuing
the case -- was also seen in the Trisakti case, where six
students were fatally shot by uniformed men, the case of the
missing activists and the case of unspeakable violence, in
particular against women, in Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor.
More recently this conspiracy of denial has been seen in the case
of the son of a top military officer alleged to be involved in a
big narcotics bust.

However, the Bank Bali scandal or BB-gate, if you will, is
undoubtedly the creme de la creme of conspiracies. First, there
is the conspiracy of greed, usually combined with an absence of
morality, committed by the actors involved in the case. When the
case broke, to the surprise of the actors, who, consumed by
greed, seemed to ignore the possibility of being caught in the
act, there was a widespread conspiracy of denial. Most probably
those who deny the loudest will be shown to be the most
implicated.

Second, there is the aforementioned conspiracy of silence. On
the one hand, it involves those who know something but dare not
speak out, because they have been threatened or terrorized. And
on the other hand, there are those who are implicated in the
scandal and consider it wisest to keep silent in the hope that
the case will disappear, like so many other cases before this
one.

Third, there is the conspiracy of bluffing, which involves
counteraccusations and challenges to the accusers to show proof
or otherwise be taken to court for making false accusations. This
type of conspiracy appears to be the specialty of high public
officials, who seem confident that because of their position they
are beyond the reach of the law.

Fourth, a related type of conspiracy is the conspiracy of
self-righteousness. The people involved in this conspiracy claim
that they are the only ones who have the correct interpretation
of what supremacy of law means, and that only they are the
champions of upholding the principle of presumption of innocence.
They accuse everybody else of making a travesty of the law.

Fifth, and undoubtedly the most incredible conspiracy at this
point in Indonesia's history, which is supposed to be
characterized by reform, transparency and the end of corruption,
collusion and nepotism, is the conspiracy of the cover-up. The
Bank Bali scandal is by far the biggest cover-up conspiracy of
them all.

But wait, do we see the light at the end of the tunnel? People
are no longer taking things lying down. There is a feeling of
empowerment driven by a sense of outrage -- enough is enough! So
another type of conspiracy is emerging: The conspiracy of
uncovering the cover-up. Is this not an indication of the
existence of a civil society, albeit still in status nascendi,
but alive nonetheless?

-- Mely G. Tan