It is time to disband the Indonesian militia

By David Jardine

JAKARTA (JP): As the level of political violence in Indonesia has increased over the past couple of years so has the number of those in paramilitary formations and "self-defense" (satgas) units. The connection is obvious.

This week's call by Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung for party members "to look after themselves" and President Abdurrahman Wahid's refusal to condemn the violence of his own supporters adds urgency to the need to rein in these groups, not all in the pay of the state, and have them disbanded.

If we look back two years to the then approaching election, the signs were clear. All the major players had some form of paramilitary-uniformed group attached to it. Golkar drew on the likes of the New Order-connected FPPI, Pemuda Pancasila and Pemuda Pancamarga, the latter two reportedly deeply immersed for years in the underworld activities of the big cities, as researcher Tim Lindsey has eloquently pointed out on these pages very recently.

Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), meanwhile, had its blackshirted satgas, a force uncomfortably reminiscent, in European eyes at least, of Mussolini's thugs.

Abdurrahman's, or Gus Dur's, National Awakening Party (PKB) for its part drew on activists of the Nahdlatul Ulama's Banser unit, a force claiming 120,000 members in Jakarta alone at that time and as many as 600,000 nationwide.

With the session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) approaching leading student groups were more and more inclined to use violence on the streets, a factor that has clearly not gone away in the interim.

Some Islamic activists have been openly hostile to the students and to PDI Perjuangan. In a demonstration last month statements included incitements to murder -- "We will behead communists".

Claiming defense of the 1945 Constitution as their modus vivendi, United Islam Front (Front Islam Bersatu) led by the New Order-connected Eggi Sudjana, was militant in its opposition to Megawati and the students.

This group was formed in August 1999 out of a meeting of no less than 19 Islamic youth groups in the premier place of worship, Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque, and claimed more than 100,000 supporters in Greater Jakarta alone.

The Crescent Star Party's most recent congress, a quite turbulent affair, saw men reportedly carrying machetes to enforce discipline. Almost none of the major parties seems to have been free of this virus of armed support.

Asrafudin Budianto, Banser commandant (the very nomenclature is unnerving), was reported as saying in the run-up to the last election that as many as 300,000 of his people had undergone special training, and satgas activists had likewise undertaken some training.

Much of this training was of a military character, drilling and command formation under instruction from ex-Marines and ex- Kopassus personnel. Knife-wielding satgas members were seen openly at the Hotel Indonesia in the run-up to the MPR session.

No word of condemnation was heard from any party leaders. In Megawati's case this was perhaps unsurprising. After all a leading ex-military man Theo Syafei, a man reportedly with much East Timorese blood on his hands, is a principal figure in PDI Perjuangan.

Nor was there a proper condemnation from Megawati of the taking of blood-oaths by thousands of her young followers, a fact that FPI took as evidence of PDI Perjuangan's malign intent.

FPI, meanwhile, put its stormtroopers through training in the Puncak area of West Java while at the same time giving them indoctrination sessions in which stress was laid on "holy war". The results of this have been seen numerous times on the streets of the capital.

It was at the time legitimate to ask, "Do the party leaders see their paramilitaries as a temporary expedient? If so, how temporary?" As the spiral of violence sharpens, those questions take on a much more urgent edge.

The insouciant attitude of all at the top towards the thuggery and intimidation carried out by supporters is exacting a major toll on the political fabric of Indonesia. Now it is legitimate to ask, "Should all uniformed groups not in the pay of the state -- which in a democracy should be accountable to the electorate -- be banned?" It goes without saying that the carrying of arms should be an arrestable offense.

Indonesia desperately needs politicians that eschew the use of force, politicians who tell their supporters unequivocally that its use is immoral and cannot be condoned. They should begin with these quasi-fascist uniformed groups they have around them.

And this before it is too late.

The writer is a freelancer based in Jakarta.