Ja'far's arrest and Malino

Ja'far's arrest and Malino

Days after the arrest in Surabaya of Ja'far Umar Thalib, the
commander of the militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad, it is not
surprising that skepticism is being voiced by the public over the
effectiveness of the measure. As was reported, police arrested
Ja'far on Saturday on his arrival in Surabaya from Makasar on
charges of inciting violence after mass prayers in Ambon two days
earlier. Police authorities, explaining the arrest to the media
on Sunday, read out portions allegedly taken from Ja'far's
lecture on the occasion to prove the Laskar Jihad commander's
guilt.

Observers, however, have questioned the effectiveness of the
measure. Thamrin Amal Tomagola, for example, a sociologist and
lecturer at the University of Indonesia who has made himself a
name in the past few years as a knowledgeable observer of the
Maluku conflagration, said the authorities should not stop at
Ja'far's arrest but take other measures as well, including
investigating other parties who are known or suspected of keeping
the discord alive.

"The authorities have to enforce the law consistently," he
said, referring to the points of a peace agreement agreed upon in
Malino, South Sulawesi, in February by the main parties in the
three-year-old conflict. According to Thamrin, those suspects
include not only Laskar Jihad, but also other parties embroiled
in the incidents before and after the Malino agreement and the
South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist movement.

Although it has been said many times before, it still may do
some good to say it again: The most important key to opening the
doorway toward peace in Maluku is effective law enforcement. By
bringing together religious and community leaders of the parties
in the conflict, Malino II, as the agreement is known -- Malino I
refers to a similar deal for Poso on the island of Sulawesi --
has in fact effectively laid the groundwork for peace by
reopening the channels of communication among the parties in the
conflict in Maluku.

In Malino, the leaders expressed what the population of Maluku
have felt for a long time: They are sick and tired of three years
of violence and killings that has brought them nothing but
misery. The people want peace brought back into their lives. But
to bring back peace to this once idyllic island paradise, the law
-- specifically the points agreed upon in Malino -- must be
strictly upheld.

This has not consistently been done and so a golden
opportunity to seize the momentum has been lost, for, surely,
there can be no doubt that the longing for peace is alive and
well among the grassroots population. If there is any doubt about
this, one only has to recall the spontaneous peace parades in
which the people of Ambon marched shoulder-to-shoulder in
complete harmony through the streets, irrespective of race,
ethnicity or religion. Neither were the people provoked into
reacting with violence when a bomb blast ripped through a crowd
near a shopping mall, killing and wounding several, or when the
governor's office was burned down.

It is in this context certainly worth noting that the people
of Ambon continued to demonstrate this kind of restraint in the
wake of the Soya killings last week, by far the most tragic
incident after the Malino II agreement that could easily have
turned the clock back and rekindled the conflagration in Maluku.

As the situation stands at present, both Alex Manuputty,
leader of the proindependence Maluku Sovereignty Forum (FKM), and
Ja'far Umar Thalib, the commander of the militant Laskar Jihad,
are in police detention. Ordinarily, this should satisfy, at
least in part, those who are clamoring for action from the
authorities. However, there are many who do not see this as being
done in the context of consistent law enforcement in Maluku. On
the contrary, it has tended to strengthen the suspicion that
other dirty hands -- hands of people who are not really party to
the conflict -- may be meddling to take advantage of the conflict
for motives of their own. No need to say, this is a damaging
assumption that the authorities would do well to dispel quickly.

Be that as it may, it should be clear that declaring martial
law is not the answer to the problem of Maluku. On the contrary,
it would only confound an already complicated situation. The only
answer is better law enforcement. Although one can understand the
difficulties that stand in the way in a country where lawfulness
cannot be fully assured even on the national plane, it is a step
that must be taken unless the government wants to see the
violence and killing go on forever in the islands.