Let's keep our calm

With April 30 approaching, political tension in Jakarta is reaching close to boiling point. April 30, one may remember, is the date on which the House of Representatives (DPR) is slated to convene a plenary session to pronounce its judgment on President Abdurrahman Wahid's response to a memorandum of censure that the DPR issued in February.

As has already been widely reported, with most factions in the House having already expressed their dissatisfaction with the President's response, expectations are that the DPR will reject Abdurrahman's reply as unsatisfactory and subsequently issue a second memorandum of censure, which would technically open the way for impeachment procedures against the President to start rolling.

Over the past few weeks, therefore, Jakarta has been abuzz with speculation that, as a result of such a possibility, violence could be in store. For certain, Abdurrahman's fanatic supporters in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) -- an organization he led for 15 years before he became President and whose members are estimated to number about 40 million -- will not take such an insult lying down. It should be noted that to them, Abdurrahman is not merely president of the republic; many of them regard him as a man chosen by divinity to lead, and so to dethrone him would be tantamount to sacrilege.

By Saturday, thousands of Jakarta's residents have been reported to have fled the city for nearby mountain and beach resorts to escape the expected violence. Obviously Jakarta is in the grip of angst, the reason for which is not difficult to comprehend. Jakarta, it must be said, has had traumatic experiences with mass trouble of this kind. Still, are such fears really warranted or necessary?

Some of us may remember how last month similar worries, fed by rumors and speculations of an impending clash between protesting supporters and opponents of the President, kept the Indonesian capital on its toes for days. Banser, NU's paramilitary branch, and Ansor, its militant youth wing, were said to be sending hundreds of thousands of their members to Jakarta to back up the President and counter his increasingly vocal adversaries on the capital's streets. As it turned out, Banser and Ansor members did come to Jakarta, though not in the huge numbers that people expected. Nor did they cause much trouble apart from obstructing traffic and causing some minor damage here and there. The same, however, could also be said of the President's antagonists. How, then, did this as yet baseless environment of fear manage to materialize in Jakarta?

Certain elements of our society, it seems, must share the responsibility for helping to stoke the all too normal tendency of people in this city to prepare themselves for the worst. First to take the blame must be the media. For weeks, for example, Jakarta's newspapers and television networks have been awash with reports of sensational acts by the President's most avid supporters who underwent combat training in East Java, for which tens of thousands of people have volunteered. Men have posed before their cameras brandishing sickles and machetes to underscore their readiness for battle. Visitors from East Java to Jakarta, however, report that the situation there is far from what it is made to appear in press photos and on television screens. In fact, the situation in general is quite normal and far from warlike.

Then there is the military. Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo has let it be known that he will not hesitate to take stern measures against troublemakers and that troops under his command have been instructed to support the police to secure the capital. A show of force was displayed at Medan Merdeka Square, complete with armored vehicles -- a challenge to battle, as it were, to troublemakers and not, it would seem, the most judgmatic way to maintain calm in conditions of peace.

Although the overwhelming majority of Indonesians profess to be Muslims, it seems that a widespread misunderstanding exists as to the meaning of the term istighotsah. In essence, the term means to gather for prayer in the full recognition that there are things that man cannot solve by themselves and divine assistance is necessary. In this case, as NU leaders have repeatedly explained, the motive is to pray for the well-being of the nation and for an end to its adversities.

It is of course to be deeply regretted that all this has been used by President Abdurrahman Wahid to blackmail the nation into accepting his arguments for remaining in power -- for example by saying that 400,000 of his supporters will be traveling to Jakarta, or that several regions of the country, including Madura, would secede if he ceased to be President. All this goes to show that Indonesians still have much to learn about democracy and its processes. As for now, all that can be said is that Indonesia obviously has a long way to go toward achieving the democratic reforms it aspires to. Whatever the case, though, all this is no reason for us to be discouraged. As they say, even a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.