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