Govt must take real action

Govt must take real action

When reading statements from the President and ministers,
especially about how rebellions are being handled in certain
areas one cannot escape a feeling of satisfaction for the
resoluteness shown in those statements. But after a few days,
optimism dies down and doubts regain the upper hand.

The President has many times issued tough warnings, like
arresting those rebels and stating that the government has no
intention of compromising with law breakers. If those statements
were followed by resolute actions, I am sure law and order would
be restored and peace would prevail. And I am sure that our
government can do that and Atambua is proof of that.

In the case of Atambua we see that the government is capable
of making tough decisions and at the same time executing those
decisions in a very short time. Why? Is it because it concerned
lives of foreigners which are more valuable than Indonesian
lives? I hope not.

Every day lives are lost in Aceh and other places, and yet no
decisive action has been taken and instead a MOU was signed
abroad, and not domestically, giving prestigious status to the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, who misused this act to their
advantage. GAM cleverly misused this internationally known
humanitarian pause and continued their attacks disguised as
"unknown gangs" and terrorized the population.

Only recently 11,000 people from Central Aceh and West Aceh
regency abandoned their homes because the security situation was
unbearable. These evacuations wee done because their homes were
burned and people were shot. Three members of the police's Mobile
Brigade were killed by grenades thrown by unknown people. These
atrocities happened a few days ago and nothing has been done.

I cannot understand the underlying motive of the government's
inaction, which only benefits GAM.

The other day I read in Suara Pembaruan a statement by the
new Minister of Defense saying that the government has no
intention to free Aceh or Papua and separate them from the
unitary Republic of Indonesia.

The Minister of Defense is also of the opinion that the
humanitarian pause is only to the advantage of the GAM, but for
the Republic it is a loss. It is a pity that this tough statement
comes from the Minister of Defense, who in the new set up has no
say in domestic peace keeping efforts.

What we need are not statements, but actions, like the late
Sukarno's government coping with the PRRI and PERMESTA
rebellions, which were more serious, covered a larger area and
had experienced military commanders. And on top of that, they had
the support of the USA. Now the rebels are completely on their
own and the international world has expressed its political
support for an integrated republic. I wish our government had
learned from history and acted accordingly.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta