No need for another riot

No need for another riot

From Republika

Having observed the country's present economic and political
turmoil, we, in the spirit of reform, would like to call on the
transitional government under B.J. Habibie to reform the laws on
politics and organize a general election as soon as possible and
immediately undertake a national economic rescue program,
particularly with respect to food supplies at prices affordable
by the majority of the people. We also hope that the present
government and the government to be formed after the next general
election continue implementing total reforms and not allow any
form of mismanagement and abuse of power.

Then, in order to prevent a recurrence of riots characterized
by discrimination and SARA (tribal affiliations, religion, race,
societal groups) -- which quantitatively and qualitatively
reached the highest level of intensity in the New Order era --
and to avoid national disintegration, we earnestly hope that the
government, the House of Representatives and all forces of the
national reform drive -- including university students -- to
fight for the issuance of an anti-SARA/antidiscrimination law.
This in addition to striving for the drafting of an antimonopoly
law, an anticollusion law, an antinepotism law and an
anticorruption law.

An anti-SARA/antidiscrimination law is important to ensure
that there will be legal protection to every Indonesian citizen
in terms of law enforcement and human rights. It is true that our
penal code stipulates articles which may be used to protect the
community from any anarchic/discriminative/SARA-smacking acts.
However, these articles have been used only with respect to the
criminal elements of these acts, such as looting, arson, murder
and rape, and have never been successfully used to bring the
mastermind of any anarchic/discriminatory riot to court.

To prevent the recurrence of similar riots in future, our
state, which is pursuant to the 1945 Constitution, is a law-
abiding state, must have a legal instrument which cannot only be
fairly and firmly used against the perpetrators of
anarchic/discriminative riots but also provide legal handling to
the victims of such riots.

We also appreciate and support the statement President Habibie
made recently when inspecting the burned buildings in Glodok and
Klender, to the effect that anything smacking of
SARA/discrimination cannot be tolerated.

Amien Rais himself has given his word that the recent riots
will never recur and appealed to Indonesians of foreign origin
now seeking safety abroad to return to this beloved country.

It is our hope that all this is not mere propaganda or an
artificial statement made to draw sympathy from all ethnic groups
in this plural nation, but something to be followed up with
concrete measures on the basis of written laws.

Let us set aside some time to contemplate on what KH Zainuddin
MZ has said: "How would I feel if that set on fire or looted were
mine?"

We hope that in this era of reform there will be no recurrence
of any incidents which may hurt our fellow countrymen. We are all
part of one nation -- the Indonesian nation. God willing, as a
nation, we will make progress if we strongly uphold the spirit of
brotherhood and see to it that stability is well maintained.

ANTON HADIWARSA

Jakarta