One year after Trisakti shooting

The investigation into the shooting of four Trisakti students one year ago has, so far, not shed any light on the incident. It is as murky as the one befalling U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Relative to the case, there are several scenarios that could be used as reference for further consideration.

First scenario, the parties involved in the shooting of the students were security forces. There may be truth in this because only the Indonesian Military is in possession of firearms.

Second scenario, a group of proreform people shot the students. They wanted to bring the name Trisakti into the limelight to put it on the same level as that of the University of Indonesia at the time of the 1966 Exponents with their Arief Rachman Hakim. This opinion has also some truth in it because mid-May 1998 was the right time to become reform "heroes". The question is where did they get the firearms from, etc?

Third scenario, the shooting was done by neither security forces nor by a reformist group. It was designed in such a way so as to give it the appearance of the shooters being security officers or proreformists. If the investigation showed that security officers were the doers, the hope was that it would mar the military's dignity in its safety mission, and it could even be accused of slowing down/obstructing the reform movement.

If the reform group turned out to be the shooters, it was expected to discredit the reform group. At the same time, it would show that the reform mission was not pure in the interest of the nation and the people.

Which one of these scenarios is true is highly dependent on the skills and intelligence of the investigators and the crime technology available. Let us hope that the case will not remain as mysterious as Kennedy's shooting.

MANAHAN TINDI L. TOBING

Medan, North Sumatra