Maluku people need moral movement

Maluku people need moral movement

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The majority of people in conflict-ridden Maluku reject the
government top-down approach to end the prolonged conflict and
instead favor a local moral initiative called the Bakubae
Movement to stop the violence, according to an opinion poll.

The poll results presented here on Friday show that most
respondents, Moluccan people both in Maluku and Java, are
disappointed with the way the government and security authorities
have handled the conflict since it erupted on Jan. 19, 1999.

The poll was jointly conducted by the Babubae Movement and the
Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) in March and April. The
results were presented by Ichsan Malik and Abubakar Riry, both of
the Bakubae Movement and Irianto Sub of YLBHI.

Of 1,400 respondents in 70 locations in Maluku and 30 areas in
the provincial capital of Ambon, almost 26 percent said that
security personnel had acted excessively and worsened the
conflict while 24.6 percent said security personnel were neutral
in handling the conflict. Only 23 percent said security personnel
had acted fairly.

Abubakar said the government had carried out a series of top-
down actions, including the peace talks in Malino, South Sulawesi
in February and the recent appointment of Maj. Gen. Djoko Santoso
as new chief of the security restoration operation, but they were
ineffective.

"In fact, the people gave no response to the government's new
move, meaning the people no longer care for the government's top-
down approach just because they see no more conflict at the
grassroots level," he said.

Ichsan said that according to the poll, with the ineffective
civil emergency administration, the state represented by the
central government and the provincial Maluku administration had
failed to fulfill its main tasks.

"According to respondents, the conflict is latent in nature,
and therefore, must be responded to with various programs to
educate the people and empower them. People from both sides
should be encouraged to take the initiative to interact with one
another to create peaceful conditions in their own social
environment," he said.

Ichsan pointed out that according to the poll, 52 percent of
respondents felt desperate, scared and disappointed with the
presence of both police and military personnel on one side and
armed militias on the other.

"Almost 75 percent of respondents said the military
involvement would never be able to solve the conflict which has
claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced more than 750,000
people," he said.