Defense of a new cultural tolerance emerging

Defense of a new cultural tolerance emerging

SINGAPORE: The Christmas Eve bombings in Indonesia, targeted at churches and Christian worshipers, were heinous and deeply offensive for the calculated desecration committed on a solemn day. Up to 15 people are dead, not all of them Christians attending Mass. Two policemen in Pekanbaru, Riau, died defusing a bomb.

Another casualty was a member of a Muslim youth group in the East Java town of Mojokerto, which had offered to guard churches on the night before Christmas.

But in Medan, pastors received Christmas packages with bombs inside. Given the festering social divisions and ethnic strife triggered by the fall of Soeharto, it must be asked how much more Indonesia can take of these blows to the body politic. Terrorist brinkmanship has mortal thresholds: Indonesia must pray that Muslims who observe Hari Raya (Idul Fitri) on Wednesday after the close of the holy month of Ramadhan will be spared what their Christian countrymen had fallen victim to. One outrage is quite enough. The security authorities are fearful there might be revenge attacks, or a continuation of the present wave. Revenge by whom?

Suspicion is strong that agents from foreign terror networks could be involved. The blasts (18 went off and nearly as many were defused) were too well-coordinated across a large geographic spread to have been the work of disparate dissident units in Islamic or ethnic-based organizations.

These took place in eight cities and towns across Java, Sumatra, Lombok and Batam. Security sources said they were "professional, well-organized, terrorist acts".

If foreign infiltration is established, it will introduce a dangerous dimension to the Indonesian conflict as the aims of external intervention would be impossible to discern. Whom might they be collaborating with, or providing armed support to? It is also possible that rogue elements of the military, or backers loyal to the Soeharto family, were implicated. They have the motive and the resources, and have been routinely accused by the police each time disturbances occurred. The car bombing outside the Philippine ambassador's home in August, followed by the Jakarta stock exchange blast in September in which 15 people died, could form part of the handiwork.

President Abdurrahman Wahid says he suspects local subversive forces are creating these incidents to destabilize his administration. The broad assessment is plausible, but it is the forms of civil disorder employed in pursuit of the objectives that should worry the authorities most.

Would it be through inter-religious hatred? Muslim-Christian animosities in the Maluku islands have resulted in 5,000 deaths since January last year, but Java has, thus far, been largely free of religious violence.

Muhammadiyah, the country's second largest Islamic organization after the Nahdlatul Ulama, now thinks troublemakers are trying to create a "second Moluccas" in Java by pitting religion against religion. Would it be ethnic assaults, such as Muslims on Chinese? One imponderable of the Christmas Eve terror is that intended Christian victims were mainly Chinese.

This could well be a Machiavellian double-play to sow discord between the Chinese minority and the state, as confidence has been eroded since the attacks on Chinese women and properties two years ago.

These scenarios bear watching. From the Christmas Eve incidents, however, President Abdurrahman can draw advantage. Condemnations by Muslim groups and the convergence of Islamic and Christian organizations in defense of cultural tolerance are rising. He can use the new solidarity to roll back divisive forces.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network