Indonesia 'on brink of disintegration'

Indonesia 'on brink of disintegration'

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is actually in the process of
disintegration due to the government's failure to cope with
conflicts in several parts of its territory, a political observer
said on Thursday.

Soedjati Djiwandono of the Research Institute for Democracy
and Peace (RIDeP) said the existing violence in restive Aceh,
Maluku, North Maluku and Irian Jaya had a lot to do with growing
public ignorance of social, religious and cultural values which
used to bind the nation.

"If the national unity has to be maintained, the nation's
pluralist character and heterogeneity must be accepted nationwide
and all differences must be solved without violence," he said in
a seminar on landscape of conflicts here on Thursday.

Soedjati opposed the repressive approach exercised by the
government and security authorities to tackle conflicts in Aceh,
Maluku, North Maluku and Irian Jaya, which had been proven
ineffective to restore peace there.

"Both the government and security authorities must promote
peace among conflicting parties. They must be able to give a
guarantee that the local people in the restive provinces can live
safely and social justice be upheld," he said.

According to him, all sides should be willing to pardon all
past mistakes and work hard to build the nation anew.

He also regretted the fact that the Chinese ethnic minority
have been blamed for the rampant collusion and corruption during
the New Order era. Those of Chinese descent have also become the
target of violence.

Unlike Soedjati, sociologist Sardjono Jatiman of the
University of Indonesia said the series of riots and existing
conflicts in certain provinces were actually part of the
evolutionary process Indonesia must undergo to become a mature
and civilized nation.

"We are now in the process toward a civilized nation," he
said. The 1945 declaration of independence was the embryo of a
civilized Indonesia, he added.

He said he was of the opinion that the recent riots and
existing regional conflicts were the results of the New Order
regime's uniform policy in all fields of the nation's life.

"With the uniform policy, local cultures were dismissed and
people were barred from raising different opinions from the
rulers, who considered people as inferior.

Dadan Umar Daihani, the newly inaugurated professor from
Trisaksi University, presented in the seminar the sketch of the
past riots. He suggested that the landscape be used as an early
warning system to prevent future outbreaks of violence.

He said that based on a 1998 survey on the series of riots
that erupted since 1997, a number of Chinese dominated trade
areas in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Solo, Central Java, were
quite prone to riots.

"The landscape of riots is very useful for security
authorities, especially the Police, to take anticipatory action
against ethnic violence in the future," he said.

Agus Budi Purnomo, a research staff at the Trisakti
University, said the prolonged violence in Aceh had a lot to do
with the widening gap between the development of human resources
and that of natural resources.

"The excessive exploration of natural resources in that
province has sowed hatred among the Acehnese people while no
actions have been made to improve their human resources. This has
raised a separatist sentiment among the people," he said,
referring to the series of Islamic rebellions in the past and the
current separatist movement in the country's westernmost
province.

The growing demand for independence in the province also
resulted from the Acehnese people's disappointment with the
government's failure to investigate past human rights abuses and
to provide compensation for victims of the atrocities, he said.
(rms)