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.