Many 'revolutionary' bodies have their home base in Yogya

By Asip A. Hasani

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Abdullah Fatah, a student of Gadjah Mada University's school of economics manages to maintain his composure when members of Laskar Saddam Husein Muslim hard-line group intercept him on Jl. Suroto, Yogyakarta, following a rally against the Golkar Party that he has joined.

The unfriendly gang stares at Fatah's T-shirt, painted with the face of Libyan charismatic leader Moammar Qaddafi, thinking it is the Cuban revolutionary figure Che Guevara.

"I simply told them that it was the picture of Qadafy, who like Saddam Husein, is an Islamic revolutionist. That stopped them from wanting to beat me," Fatah recalled.

"They released me after I convinced them that both Saddam and Qaddafi were socialist figures, revolutionaries like Guevara."

Attacks on students protesting against Golkar have mushroomed here, although there is no apparent link between the attackers and the former ruling party.

Apart from Laskar Saddam Husein, there are some 40 newly born Muslim hard-line groups in the sultanate town, such as Laskar Hizbullah, Laskar Macan Tamil, the Movement of Ka'ba Youth (GPK), the Anti-Maksiat Movement (GAM), and the Anti-Communist Youth Movement (Gepako). The groups are mostly affiliated to the local branch of the United Development Party (PPP), except for Gepako, which is close to Golkar.

Yogyakarta is also the home base of Lasykar Jihad Ahlulsunnah Wal Jamaah, which has been training and sending volunteers to riot-torn Maluku, in view of the Muslim community there.

Ahead of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan last year, those groups conducted raids almost every night on cafes, nightclubs, liquor sellers, gambling spots and other places they branded an insult to Islamic teachings. The attacks have continued, although are now quite rare.

"We have merely tried to execute God's commandment to eradicate prostitution, which the police are reluctant to do," chief of the Yogyakarta Young Mosque Congregations Communication Forum Ahmad Yazir said.

"We cannot avoid using violence to counter student demonstrators and some nongovernmental organization activists who campaign against our religious values."

Chief of the provincial branch of PPP Fauzi A.R., said the groups had emerged as the means of articulating the youths' enthusiasm in defending their beliefs. If PPP had not provided a forum, the youths would have acted in a more anarchic way, he said.

Under the supervision of his party, he said, the youngsters learned Islamic teachings twice a week.

"This also shows the rising awareness among the Indonesian young generation of the importance of implementing Islamic teachings within their society," Fauzi told The Jakarta Post.

For many residents, however, the groups actually spread fear. More people have expressed fear of the youths' activities, which include night rallies on motorcades through the peaceful town, and random raids.

The antipathy seems to have escalated since residents of a village in Bantul, south of here, clashed with PPP supporters that were returning home in a motorcade from a party gathering on June 10. At least 18 people were injured in the clash before police moved in to quell the resulting brawl.

There have been several minor fracas involving the hard-line groups in Yogyakarta ever since the provincial branch of PPP intensified rallies, which commonly took place on Sundays, a few months ago.

Following the latest fray, Governor Hamengkubuwono X declared war against violence and ordered stricter measures against any group that wished to cause disturbance.

Tourism became the hardest-hit economic sector as the acts of violence increased.

Chief of the Yogyakarta branch of the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI) Steffanus Indarto lamented that only 30 percent of the 9,500 hotel rooms available in the town had been occupied over the past few weeks.

"What has been witnessed by foreign tourists during their stay in Yogyakarta has affected this decline," he told a seminar recently.

A hotel needs to have at least 40 percent of its rooms occupied to break even.

Fauzi admitted that some of the hard-line groups could have committed violence in their bid to eradicate perceived sins (maksiat) because of their enthusiasm in upholding Islamic law. However, he rejected the accusation that the groups had spread fear among the people.

"They may have used violence, but that is not the cause of the people's anxiety. There must be a third party creating the anxiety," he said.

Sociologist Heru Nugroho blamed the state of fear on the lack of determination by both the government and the police in upholding the law.

"The point is, they should not have allowed opportunities to be created for the establishment of radical groups," Heru said, adding that he suspected certain political motives behind the establishment of such groups.

Yogyakarta police chief Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf hinted that the provincial branch of PPP had contributed to the violence.

"The groups are not afraid of dispersing student demonstrations, or raiding gambling spots and other places in the cause of their religious mission because they feel safe under a political party's umbrella," he told the Post recently.

Saleh, however, warned that police had zero tolerance toward those who took the law into their own hands.

"They should simply inform us about gambling spots and other illegal businesses and let us take action. They have no right to carry out the duties of the police," he said.

Separately, city police chief Sr. Com. Ibnu Sudjak Mahfud suspected that the violence was perpetrated by some hoodlums recruited by the groups.

The thugs, he said, had also been blamed for the increase in the number of clashes between supporters of different political parties.