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.