Life is cheap in Indonesia

Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, korpur@yahoo.com

A strong sense of grief would be felt by anyone who saw the pictures of victims of the disastrous floods in Bahorok, North Sumatra, in newspaper and TV reports on Thursday. However, that sorrow would quickly turn to anger if they saw the front page of Indonesia Pos, which showed four Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers treating the body of a Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebel like an animal they had hunted and killed.

Whose consciousness would not be bothered by the death of 100 people in the disastrous torrent in the area surrounding the orangutan reserve in Bahorok?

In the meantime whose sense of humanity would not be disturbed to see three soldiers proudly grabbed the hair of the dead Yustinus Murib while another soldier pointed his gun at Yustinus' stomach? Even in the most brutal of wars such behavior is intolerable,

On the Leuser disaster, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, with no hesitation, placed responsibility for the disaster on the shoulders of illegal loggers in the nearby Leuser National Park.

Her environment minister, Nabiel Makarim, described the illegal loggers as terrorists.

"According to the criteria set down in the antiterrorism law, environmental destruction such as illegal logging can be classified as terrorism," Nabiel said after meeting with the President.

But what else can the President do besides sending her husband Taufik Kiemas to visit the scene of the disaster, distribute some humanitarian aid and sing the same old song that those who are responsible will be severely punished, whoever they are? Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla also promised to disburse Rp 50 billion (US$ 5.8 million) to help the victims. The family of the deceased will receive Rp 2 million.

Whether or not these promises are kept is not the issue, and even the victims themselves do not expect much from Taufik or the minister. There are too many examples of government officials corrupting donations for victims of disasters, including the victims of the tidal wave in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, earthquakes in Lampung and Jambi, and landslides in West Java. It was this corruption that moved president Abdurrahman Wahid to disband the ministry of social services in 1999.

Whenever natural disasters, terrorist attacks or severe traffic accidents happen, everyone from the president to ministers and governors act like generous state officials.

First, they promise to cover all medical costs, but if you check with the hospitals where the victims are treated you will discover that this promise is rarely realized. Then president B.J. Habibie made a long list of promises for the victims of the May riots in 1998 which forced Soeharto out of office, starting from the upholding of justice to humanitarian assistance. What happened then?

Second, the officials tend to think that they have solved all the problems by showing some generosity. They think a death caused by human negligence or greed, state terrorism or natural disasters is thoroughly atoned for when the victims or their families receive a small token of sympathy from the government.

The government officials do not want to think about how to make sure that such deaths do not occur again. For the government and many Indonesians, promises are seen as the final solution to any conflict or problem.

And what of the fate of the Papuan rebels who were killed by TNI soldiers on Wednesday? If after seeing the picture a person can still say there is nothing wrong with four soldiers treating a corpse in this manner, then we may conclude that there is something wrong with that person's mind.

Indonesia calls itself a civilized and religious nation whose life is guided by the sacred state ideology of Pancasila. We tend to link our mystery to our destiny, which was decided by God upon our birth.

But look at what Nabiel said after branding illegal loggers terrorists. He clearly showed no interest in doing anything more than talking. "It is difficult to combat illegal logging because we must face the financial backers and their shameless protectors, from the Indonesian armed forces and police, and from other government agencies."

The last question then is: Who is responsible for all these tragedies?

A remark by Amien Rais, speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, is interesting to note in this case: "Things are just like a fart; invisible but spreading a foul smell everywhere."