Life after the Bali bombing

B. Hari Juliawan, Student Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta

It has been nearly a week since the bombing in Legian took place. The debate about the existence of terrorist groups has been proved ridiculous. Bombs have exploded many times in this archipelago, threatening innocent people. A legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB) recently stated that there were 20 unsolved bombing cases. Perpetrators are still roaming freely in this country spreading further threats.

However, government officials, one of whom is the vice president, failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the threat despite repeated warnings from various sources including friendly states. Instead, some politicians reportedly were courting some groups whose language has been far from promoting peace, and even defending such groups under the guise of nationalism or religious solidarity. To name the perpetrators as terrorists or a group of bad persons is a game of semantics. Acknowledging the existence of terrorists in this country is a matter of stating the obvious.

Keeping in mind the three societal powers that give shape to daily life, i.e. state, business, and community, since Sept. 11 last year and more accurately since the Legian attack, we may have to add terrorism as the fourth power. It has the rules and resources by which the lives of many people worldwide are exercised. The existence of high explosives such as those that went off in Bali in our midst clearly prompts us to define new terms for security in public places.

The police nationwide are reportedly bracing themselves for more similar incidents, while the tourism industry is preparing for the worst in the coming months or years. The government is reportedly trying to speed up the process on its anti-terrorism bills. As for the fear generated among the people, this perhaps is more the case for foreign tourists but locals are not excluded.

Although with less devastation, bomb explosions before Bali targeted locals. And if those terrorists did not think twice before killing many foreign nationals, why on earth they should not kill Indonesian nationals if this would serve their cause.

Secondly, the existence of local terrorist groups mirrors another local failure, that of the state. During the past three years, Indonesia has joined the community of "pariah states". The economic crisis is still strongly felt. Conflicts have thrived in far flung regions as well as in centers of power in Java with the central government unable to cope.

The government cannot provide a basic feeling of security to its people, materially and emotionally. Public services are deteriorating, leaving communities on their own to make do with the continuing hardship. Meanwhile, turning a deaf ear to the cry of the people, high-ranking government officials in Jakarta as well as in other provinces shower themselves with generous revenues and luxury gifts from either private or state companies.

Normally we would think that the state with all its resources is there to sustain the survival of the community. And different groups would pursue their interests through democratic means by, for example, participating in elections. Obviously it has not been the case with Indonesia.

Legislators are only attracted to improving their lifestyles and fattening their bank accounts. The state has ceased to be the agent of welfare and the servant of the community, and instead it is driven by profit seeking. The election of Sutiyoso as Jakarta's governor is the most recent example of how politics has increasingly sidelined the public. Politics becomes the art of endless grabbing.

The profit seeking orientation of the state effectively annuls conventions and agreements once reached to make living together possible. The state has been separated from its spouse, the community. Thus it is no longer relevant to put hope on democratic means to pursue communal interests.

The crack in the platform of living together opens up new territory for conflict mongering activities. They offer immediate political articulation and stronger bargaining position vis a vis the state and other groups in society. Poor law enforcement and the fractured nature of Indonesian politics make this even more possible. The police are busy fighting their competitors, the Army, in illicit business only to confirm the instinct for cash among the state apparatuses. Indeed, terrorists are born of the unfair working of society. And it can be local as well as global.

Thirdly, all this leaves us with a question of how to make peaceful coexistence possible again after the Legian bombing. The attack should be a turning point to return the state as the agent of welfare, to recouple the state with the community; hence the return of democracy. Presently this possibility seems to be far off.

There are three kinds of untouchables in our society: Big debtors, corruptors, and masterminds behind a series of riots and attacks throughout the archipelago. Terrorists of the caliber of those who planted the Legian bombs have joined the ranks. These three categories of people will likely strive to maintain their beyond-the-law status at whatever cost. The attempt to restore the standing of the state must deal with these people first.

To "recouple" the state with the community takes more than just making policies. At the base of this is a shattered telos, an ultimate end -- a cause for taking care of our neighbors -- for respecting humanity regardless of religious, ethnic or other primordial backgrounds. That telos is surely a rarity, but does not at all disappear. A tourist in Bali quoted by this newspaper said, "This act of terrorism should make everyone unite and stick together, helping themselves and helping to support the people of Bali and the economy."

Yet those who attempt to champion their own cause are prepared to do otherwise. To salvage what remains of the telos after the Legian attack will surely be a rough ride on the road to peace in Indonesia.