No time for rifts
No time for rifts
It should hardly need repeating. As many officials and
observers have warned in recent months, rumor mills thrive in the
climate of mistrust and confusion which the nation is now
experiencing. Similarly, people are easily provoked, by word or
deed, into actions that will not only hurt the interests of the
community as a whole, but their own interests too.
The -- happily as yet rather sporadic -- outbreaks of violence
that have hit a number of towns in the provinces recently should
serve as a strong reminder of this reality. Amid the monetary and
economic turmoil that is currently afflicting the nation, the
last thing we need to return equilibrium to our daily lives is
for people to fan the flames of the difficulties that we are now
facing.
Yet it appears that not everybody is taking such warnings to
heart. It seems safe to say that recent riots that have rocked
towns in Java and Sulawesi would not have occurred without
incitement, for whatever motive, from certain irresponsible
individuals acting on rumors. It is for this reason that certain
recent statements deserve our serious attention.
In the first statement, read out in Jakarta last weekend,
student and youth leaders warned the public over what they called
"scapegoating politics", which they feared could threaten our
national unity.
Calling on the public to remain vigilant against anything that
could trigger incidents related to race, religion, tribal
affiliations or societal groups -- in other words, the cluster of
incendiary social and political issues lumped together under the
acronym SARA -- the statement warned Indonesians not to look for
scapegoats on which to blame current difficulties. This would
only worsen the situation.
The second statement deserving of our attention was made by
Eep Syaefullah, head of the research and development department
in the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political
Studies in Jakarta. In the daily newspaper Jayakarta, Syaefullah
suggested a recent bombing incident, which allegedly implicated a
well-known Chinese-Indonesian business tycoon, was an attempt by
certain parties to divert public attention from more serious
problems currently facing Indonesia.
Syaefullah's suggestion is something that only a court of law
is authorized to establish -- a course that will surely be taken
should the necessity arise. The immensely complicated situation
now makes it of paramount importance that we remain level-headed
and retain good judgment when facing controversy and intrigue.
Now, more than ever, it is important that we maintain our
cohesion and unity as a nation, in deed and in word, and maintain
the sobriety required to avoid pitfalls that could lead us to
disaster. With many dangers lying ahead, this is certainly no
time to play with fire.