May people establish an army?

May people establish an army?

Intensified media reports on the Aceh question, usually
dwelling on the conflicts between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
and its armed wing (AGAM) on the one hand and the Indonesian
Military (TNI) on the other, very clearly indicate that the mass
media favor GAM and AGAM and tend to take the TNI to task. Of so
many reports and analyses published in the mass media, only very
few question whether or not individual groups of people, like the
Acehnese, for example, are allowed to set up their own armies and
what the legal sanction would be if they set up such armies.

This is something that I really fail to understand. The people
of Aceh, which is still a legitimate part of the Republic of
Indonesia, now have an illegal army known as AGAM, and many of
our national and political elite simply let them get away with
it. As a result, AGAM is getting stronger and stronger and has
now openly declared war against TNI, which is the legitimate
military force of Indonesia.

So where is the concern of our elite? They have instead shaped
a public opinion which turns everything upside down so that TNI
is cornered in such a way that it is considered proper to be
crushed by AGAM.

Let me now ask our political elite, intellectuals, ulemas,
community figures, artists and cultural activists in this
republic whether as social groups we can also set up our own
armies in our own neighborhoods. As for the weapons, all sorts or
weapons, traditional or otherwise, are relatively easy to obtain
now.

If we are allowed to set up our own army, we will recruit
thousands of people to be members of our army. As everybody
knows, there are many unemployed people now. Therefore, once we
can establish our own army we can easily order the army to rob,
terrorize and intimidate people anywhere. There are many rich
people in this country: Javanese, Bataks, the Minang, Acehnese
and so forth. So we can rob them of their assets to finance our
army.

We have posed this question as a manifestation of our envy of
the Acehnese people, who easily managed to set up their AGAM. If
they can establish AGAM, we can also set up an Army of Mataram,
an Armed Forces of Surabaya, an Armed Forces of Betawi and so
forth. However, we realize that if we do this, there will be a
civil war in the end.

The problem is whether or not this idea to set up private
armies comes from a sane mind. As long as we sane enough, we will
never set up such armies. Once we lose our sanity, we may decide
to set up such armies. You want evidence? Well, when the Acehnese
set up their AGAM, our political elite and intellectuals seem to
give them a green light and defend them. On the other hand, the
TNI, which is the legal military force in this republic, is
always criticized when trying to subdue this illegal army.

TONI PONIMAN

Depok, West Java