Govts' responses to Bali: Part solutions, part problems

Govts' responses to Bali: Part solutions, part problems

Max Lane, Visiting Fellow, Center for Asia Pacific
Social Transformation Studies, University of Wollongong,
New South Wales, Australia

On Oct. 14, in the Australian parliament Prime Minister John
Howard seized on the terrorist incident in Bali last weekend to
justify a further strengthening of repressive "anti-terrorist
laws" as well as of the security apparatus in Australia.

In this regard he is no different from scores of government
power wielders cynically using the sympathy and solidarity
generated among ordinary peoples when they react in horror to
acts of terror. Civilized people everywhere want an end to these
criminal acts and will demand that governments do something.

But are such government leaders serious? Whether in Canberra
or Jakarta, when any social evil emerges, the first step of any
serious effort would be to seek out and address the cause of the
phenomenon: Why is it happening? Acts of terror do not emerge
from no where.

The reality is, however, that all those governments and
political forces supporting George W. Bush's war against terror,
including the Australian government, show no interest in
identifying and eliminating the causes of this social evil.

Of course, to know the cause is not to excuse the individual
perpetrators, nor to say that no police measures at all should be
taken. But in the end, no amount of tightened security will end
this trend unless the causes are addressed.

In fact, heightened security that violates civil liberties and
is based on such things as racial profiling will only generate
further acts of terror.

Fanatical political, religious, or communal groups did of
course, not pioneer the use of terror in politics. Terror in
politics was pioneered, and thereby legitimized by states. In the
case of Indonesia, terror in politics was institutionalized by
the Soeharto-Golkar regime that controlled Indonesia since 1965.

Between 1965-1967 mass terror was carried out on a scale not
repeated until the era of Pol Pot in Cambodia. At least one
million people were slaughtered, often in public executions. But
even after 1968, violence was used to terrorize the population on
a periodic basis. Indonesians are very familiar with the history,
including incidents such as the Tanjung Priok incident, the
Lampung massacres, the "mysterious shootings" (known by the
acronym petrus) of the 1980s, the kidnapping and disappearances
of student activists in the 1990s are just some examples.

Since 1998 also, all the major political parties have
developed para-military groups, which also use violence and
terror to intimidate their rivals.

The Soeharto-Golkar New Order regime legitimized and spread
the use of violence in politics. All Australian governments,
including the Howard government, have defended that regime are
complicit in this legitimization of violence.

At the same time the Soeharto regime was using terror to
control politics in Indonesia, John Howard tried to tell the
Australian and Indonesian people that Soeharto was a "caring and
sensitive" leader. Now Howard laments the fact that acts of
terror start to hit Australians in Indonesia.

The hypocrisy is mind boggling. Howard should have resigned in
shame in 1999. His East Timor policy of acquiescing in the
military occupation of East Timor while Soeharto was in power
also laid the basis for the East Timorese people suffering also a
wave of horrific terror in 1999. The U.S. government is complicit
in the same way.

Indonesian regimes after Soeharto, including the Megawati
government, bear the same responsibility. There has not been one
single prosecution and jailing of any of those government or
military officials responsible for the use of terror under
Soeharto. Soeharto himself has not even been charged with
violation of human rights.

If Soeharto and all the officials of the repression apparatus
during his period can get away with terror as a tool of politics,
why should anybody be surprised if more elements in society think
that terror is a justifiable means of doing politics. While
Soeharto and friends remain free and while major political
parties maintain uniformed para-military units, terror, i.e.
violence in politics, will continue to be legitimized.

Legitimizing terror is not the only form of Western complicity
in causes of today's terror. The underlying cause of the spread
of non-state terror throughout the world is the deepening social
disintegration of so many societies. This is also beginning in
Indonesia.

As unemployment and poverty increase and uncertainty about the
future among 220 million people worsens social solidarity is
undermined. A process is beginning of pitting all against all:
Center against region (as with Aceh); regions against center;
natural resource rich regions against their neighboring resource
poor areas, such as in the Riau case; ethnic group against ethnic
group; religion against religion; regency against regency etc.

This process is a direct result of the crisis since 1997. The
crisis itself is caused by the plunder of the economy, forced
open without protection by the International Monetary Fund.

Western commercial interests drain the country of wealth and
destroy its productive capacity, even in rice and sugar, while
the local political, business and military elite looks on,
acquiescing and enriching itself.

The elite has no solution to the crisis, except to pointlessly
beg for more foreign investment. In this whole situation,
Western governments, including the hypocritical Australian
government of John Howard, are fully complicit.

So a vacuum is created in the search for solutions. A real
solution is being formulated out of the thinking by the activist
and politicized wing of civil society, but they have not yet won
a hearing among the most people.

The conditions have thus been created for the spread of
scapegoat politics and demagogic agitation. This is the situation
now in Indonesia, as well as globally. Scapegoat and demagogic
politics in a world where the ruling elites and governments have
legitimized violence in politics will inevitably foster the
spread of non-state terrorism.

On the streets of Jakarta, there are many suggestions as to
who the bombers are: Al-Qaeda, or some similar group, local or
foreign; the U.S. or the CIA, wanting to create a terrorist
scare; the Indonesian military or intelligence services; some
elite faction wanting to distract attention away from current
controversies.

There is no evidence yet who carried out the criminal and
barbaric act in Legian, Bali. Whoever carried out this act should
be identified and held responsible. But so should those who are
responsible for the underlying causes of this violent world:
Soeharto, Howard, Bush, the IMF, Megawati and all those who
defend the unjust and semi-barbaric system the world now lives
under.