Hope in Maluku

Hope in Maluku

Skeptics may question how long the latest Maluku peace
agreement, which was signed by Muslim and Christian
representatives in the South Sulawesi hill town of Malino on
Tuesday, will really hold. After all, the agreement brokered by
the government is only the latest of similar deals struck by the
two communities in Maluku in the last three years.

Since many earlier peace agreements fell apart even before the
ink dried, skeptics would be justified in asking what chance does
this latest one have of restoring peace. Is it so different from
the earlier ones, that it can assure us, and especially the
people of Maluku, that peace will soon come to Maluku?

Whatever reservations we have about the Malino agreement, we
should all give support to any effort to restore peace in Maluku.
Any agreement is almost always better than no agreement at all,
and this one is no exception. Besides, conditions on the ground
suggest that Maluku is ripe for this kind of peace deal.

For starters, both the Muslim and Christian communities appear
to have run out of steam, after fighting endlessly for more than
three years. With no one camp gaining the upper hand, the
conflict has come to a stand off. Tensions remain high in some
areas, but physical clashes have become few and far between in
recent months.

Since the first fighting broke out in January 1999, the Maluku
conflict has claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced more
than 700,000 people, or more than a third of the population of
Maluku and North Maluku. Fighting continued even after the two
provinces had been put under a state of civil emergency in June
2000.

Surely by this time, more and more people in Maluku must feel
that enough is enough. There seems to have been a growing
realization among the two warring communities that the conflict
was not going anywhere, and that more casualties would ensue
unless they mended fences. In short, they now realize that they
have nothing to gain and everything to lose by not forging a
peace deal.

Then there is also the active involvement of the central
government in brokering the peace pact, an ingredient that was
missing in the earlier peace deals when Jakarta insisted that
this was a problem for the Maluku people to solve.

With the conflict becoming so complex, and particularly with
the participation of outsiders such as the Laskar Jihad forces
from Java since early 2000, the government role has became
pivotal in prodding the conflicting camps, brokering a peace
agreement, and later on, enforcing the agreement.

The peace agreement between Christian and Muslim leaders in
the Central Sulawesi regency of Poso, signed last month also in
Malino, has certainly added pressure on the Maluku leaders to
start working toward peace. If Poso can do it, so can Maluku, so
the logic goes.

Granted, two days of negotiations in Malino could hardly be
expected to address all the contentious issues, or bridge their
differences. It certainly could not erase the animosity that has
developed between the two communities that have been killing each
other for the last three years. But what is most important is
that all sides to the conflict and the government have shown the
spirit and goodwill to work toward peace.

The 11-point peace agreement still leaves many unanswered
questions, and we hope that the government and negotiators will
not stop their efforts here, and that they will meet again soon
to follow up on their commitment toward peace.

The devil is always in the details. All the goodwill and the
good spirit in the world cannot prevent further violence from
breaking out again, unless leaders of the two communities and the
government do some real work on the ground to sustain the peace.

Real and sustainable peace in Maluku is still a long way away,
and eliminating the hatred and healing the wounds will probably
take even longer. The failure of the earlier peace agreements
should have taught us that there are so many pitfalls ahead, and
that it will require patience, perseverance, hard work and real
commitment to make everlasting peace a reality.

The Malino deal is only the beginning of that long road. But
it has offered us, and the people in Maluku, a renewed hope.
Let's not squander what is probably our last chance to bring
peace to Maluku for a long time.