Do the right thing in Nigeria and Indonesia

Do the right thing in Nigeria and Indonesia

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON (JP): On Feb. 29, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, 18
men did a brave thing. At an emergency meeting between President
Olusegun Obasanjo and the governors of the country's 36 states,
the leaders of the Muslim-majority northern states promised to
put all efforts to introduce Syariah (Islamic) law in their states
on hold indefinitely.

"To restore normalcy and create confidence in the troubled
polity," reported Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, "it was agreed
that, as far as the Syariah issue is concerned, everyone will
revert to the status quo ante."

The meeting came at the end of a week that saw hundreds of
Nigerians killed in Muslim-Christian clashes over the issue, and
raised the threat of a cataclysmic civil war in Africa's most
populous country.

The clashes were not spontaneous. The Syariah agitation was
sponsored by cynical men whose wealth and power are threatened by
the country's new democracy, and who are therefore deliberately
pushing the Syariah issue to destabilize Nigeria.

These ruthless men include many of the generals who have
misruled and looted Nigeria for the past generation. They are
almost all northern Muslims themselves, and in combination with
their powerful civilian allies they can make things very hard for
any politician who defies them.

It took much courage for the northern state governors to put
the whole Syariah question on ice, knowing that they would feel
the wrath of these men, and that extremists would accuse them of
betraying Islam -- but they did it anyway.

On the same day, half a world away in East Timor, the leader
of another giant but shaky new democracy was doing something
equally brave. Abdurrahman Wahid, only four months in office as
president of Indonesia's new democracy, ignored army displeasure
and his own ill health to pay a visit to the island where the
Indonesian army and its militia henchmen carried out appalling
massacres only six months ago.

President Abdurrahman went to apologize to the East Timorese
for the horrors that were inflicted on them after they voted
four-to-one for independence in a United Nations-supervised
referendum last August. It was the right thing to do -- but
Abdurrahman would not have been able to go at all if he had not
already faced down Gen. Wiranto.

Wiranto took over as commander of the Indonesian armed forces
when the long-ruling dictator Soeharto was overthrown in 1998,
and was widely seen to have the task of protecting the military's
huge political clout and wide-ranging economic interests during
the delicate transition to democracy. He was also widely seen to
be the man ultimately responsible for organizing the abortive
genocide (aborted only by international intervention) in East
Timor last September.

When Abdurrahman took over soon afterwards as the first
legitimately elected president, Gen. Wiranto demanded and got a
key job in his cabinet as "coordinating minister for political
and security affairs".

After a struggle, Abdurrahman managed to convince him that he
must formally hand over his job as armed forces chief to someone
else, but he remained a baleful presence in the government, a
constant reminder that the generals who had prospered so mightily
under Soeharto were determined to defend their interests.

Meanwhile, violent upheavals kept breaking out in various
outlying parts of Indonesia. Needlessly aggressive army tactics
re-ignited the war with fundamentalist Muslims seeking
independence in Aceh. There were murderous Muslim-Christian
clashes in South Maluku, and the army was strangely slow to
intervene. Then came a reportedly anti-Christian pogrom in
January in the tourist island of Lombok.

President Abdurrahman blamed most of it on a conspiracy to
stop his government from implementing economic reforms that would
hurt the vested interests he labeled "dark forces", but he didn't
actually name the military. United States Ambassador to the UN
Richard Holbrooke was blunter, saying that "a huge struggle is
continuing on all fronts between the forces of progress, the
future-oriented democratic forces of President Wahid, and the
Indonesian military."

Then in January came the 2,000-page report of the new
government's Commission to Investigate Human Rights Violations in
East Timor, which flatly accused Gen. Wiranto and some two
hundred other generals, officials and militia leaders of
responsibility for the slaughter in East Timor.

Abdurrahman demanded that Wiranto step down to face the
charges, Wiranto refused, and there was a tense two-week stand-
off while rumors flew of a coup.

But on Feb. 15, the leaders of the Indonesian armed forces
rose above their sectional interests and put peace and democracy
first. Armed forces commander Adm. Widodo A.S. announced that "I,
together with the navy, army and air force chiefs of staff,
believe that ... the President's decision is intended for the
nation's interest .... We are all convinced that Wiranto with all
his sincerity and big heart will accept the decision." So Wiranto
quit, and Abdurrahman was free to go to East Timor.

Neither the Indonesian generals nor the Nigerian governors are
blameless men: in both cases, some among them were heavily
implicated in the corruption of the old regime. But faced with
similar situations, in which the prime beneficiaries of the old
regime were deliberately stirring up religious strife in
vulnerable countries (Nigeria is 50-50 Muslim-Christian,
Indonesia is 90-10) in order to destroy democracy, both groups
made the right choice. All praise to (somewhat) honorable men.