Neutrality, Megawati's mantle?

Surely, the very same money that undemocratically squeezed the red-neck, George W. Bush, into the White House, must be behind the article titled U.S. must prevent chaos in RI (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 2, 2001) by Tom Plate. It is all too redolent of the arms industry.

Rather than militarism, Switzerland, another nation of great linguistic and cultural diversity, sensibly chose political reform and the advancement of individual rights when confronted with a brief civil war that threatened its unity in 1848. It adopted a confederal constitution guaranteeing the rights of citizens and providing for the cantons to maintain their autonomy within a unitary state, governed by a democratic central government, headed by a seven-member Federal Council instead of a prime minister. It also reconfirmed its anti-militarism manifest in its tiny regular army and long-standing neutrality.

Like Indonesia, the Confederation of Switzerland came into being because of a desire to counter foreign intervention. The Swiss, in thirteenth century Europe, feared the power of the Hapsburg family, while Indonesia coalesced to resist the Dutch. Unfortunately, Indonesia failed to appreciate that foreign intervention could come in other guises and these soon resulted in the toppling of president Sukarno, the denationalizing of Western assets nationalized under him and the installation of the Quisling-dictator, Soeharto, ultimately leading to the disastrous invasion of East Timor.

Perhaps because Indonesia had to fight for its independence and then suffer the Western-sponsored escalation of right-wing militarism here, it is not considering solutions, other than military ones, properly.

The Swiss, on the other hand, became very much aware that trying to maintain by force, the unity they needed to ensure their freedom from others, was bound to fail in the long run because brutality and oppression, perpetrated by a central government, are incompatible with freedom itself and that trust and loyalty must develop in the regions if people are to willingly remain part of a unitary state. By eschewing coercion the Swiss have since achieved a level of stability and prosperity that few other countries can match.

Given that Indonesia has suffered Pol Pot-like massacres and other depredations as a result of being drawn into the Cold War, internationally recognized neutrality could be a way of avoiding any recurrence. With a nervous and rather capricious Australia to the south that needs mollifying and the danger of being sucked into America's attempts to counter the growing power of China to the north, it is certainly an option worth serious consideration. Perhaps, here is a chance for President Megawati to finish what her father began.

Arms-manufacturing countries will of course, vehemently oppose the resulting demilitarization; but let us hope that it will soon be widely acknowledged in Indonesia (and by various foreign investors seeking stability) that the notion that military force can unify a nation is sheer folly.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Tangerang, Banten