Ending the Maluku mayhem

Ending the Maluku mayhem

After months of waiting, the people of Maluku were finally
visited on Sunday by President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice
President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The visit had long been expected, because locals had witnessed
with disgust the bloody intercommunal clashes and had failed to
find a way to end them.

Locals have pinned their hopes on the central government
putting an end to the bloodshed, which since January has claimed
the lives of at least 657 civilians and 14 security officers. The
tragedy, which has shocked the nation, is even more lamentable
because the figure is disproportionate to the province's
population of a little more than two million people.

The former harmonious life of the population, who are
scattered on many small islands and who profess to different
creeds, remains fresh in everyone's minds. Many believed that the
dirty hands of provocateurs from outside effectively disturbed
the idyllic situation.

Alas, while violent skirmishes continued to claim lives, not
one national leader -- including the Vice President who had been
authorized to handle the situation -- had made even a swift visit
to the province. Many analysts believe that Megawati had no idea
what to tell the people, or what to do about the bloodshed in the
former spice islands. Some people said that she had neither a
concept not the guts to solve the conflict.

But it was not Megawati's problem alone. The crisis appears to
be just too complicated for the government. The administration's
stance was made clear by Coordinating Minister of Defense and
Security Gen. Wiranto when he acknowledged that he was at a loss
on how to resolve sectarian violence in the province. He added
that the problem could only be solved by the parties involved in
the fighting.

The statement shows the way the military perceives the current
provincial crises: either it resorts to brutal operations, or it
leaves the matter in the hands of locals. Such a strategy augurs
nothing but a grimmer future for this country. Even more shocking
is that Abdurrahman repeated Wiranto's statement to the Maluku
people during his Sunday visit.

It tests our notions of credibility if we accept the facts as
they unfolded. Instead of helping the local people, the
government has left them stranded in darkness and confusion. Some
of them may have asked themselves "what kind of government is
this?" And the President may have said to himself that it was
local inhabitants who allowed the crisis to drag on until it
became out of hand. Now they have to solve the dilemma
themselves.

This is a dangerous approach to regional crises. Had the
President given the same answer to the rebellious Acehnese, who
are currently waging a war for an independent state, they would
have answered: "OK, we have solved it because we declared our
independence in 1967. What you should do is withdraw your brutal
battalions from here."

In Maluku, the intercommunal violence has been so serious that
it is hard to say who started the trouble and how to put an end
to it. Muslims and Christians have resorted to a kind of a
vengeful orgy, leaving their religions looking like a corrupted
dream of peace.

However, even in this dire situation we can still see a silver
lining. We strongly believe that no Muslim or Christian religious
leader in Jakarta would permit their religions to be transformed
into such lunacy.

Once and for all, they should sit down and discuss how to put
an end to this ugly war. The religious leaders should later
travel to the troubled province to talk to the warring parties
and persuade them to meet at the negotiating table in order to
reach a comprehensive agreement. If such measures are not taken,
we fear the violence will consume the whole area.

The central government should also join efforts to end the
bloodshed, otherwise the Maluku crisis will drag on and the
disastrous religious conflict will unquestionably spread to other
areas.