Politics and violence
After months of delay, the joint fact-finding team established by the government on July 23 to investigate the May riots finally presented its official report to the public on Tuesday.
The 26-page report, compiled during a three-month period of interviews and on-the-spot observations, confirmed the public's worst fears. It would seem that the riots were at least in part incited by trained and accomplished agent provocateur. What is more, the three-day orgy of violence that rocked Jakarta and several other big cities was merely the culmination of a series of related events that began in the run-up to last year's general election and ended with the fatal shooting of four students at Trisakti University in Jakarta on May 12. The riots brought the 32-year rule of former president Soeharto to an end and left more than 1,200 people dead.
"In all these events the progression of acts of systematic violence unfolded in an accumulative and expansive manner, and may be regarded as building a focal point for the meeting of two basic processes -- an intensifying struggle among the political elite and a worsening of the economic and monetary situation," the report said.
"The May 13 to May 15 riots must be placed within a time span covering the periods both before and after the event itself. They were sweeping in dimension, with multifold aspects, and were national in their scope. In terms of activity, the violence has been classified by the team as ranging from acts of destruction, looting, arson, sexual violence, torture, murder and intimidation progressing into terrorism," the team said. The report notes that observations made in several different localities had established that the violence erupted at more or less the same time in all locations.
Apart from confirming what the public already knew or suspected, the report provides some interesting details so far not mentioned openly in media reports. In Surakarta (Solo), Central Java, for example, the team not only found "clear indications" of the involvement of local hoodlums and youth organizations, but also of state security personnel, "especially of Kopassus (the Army's Special Force), in conditioning the community. The case of Surakarta indicates that a link exists between mass violence and (power) struggles among the elite in the upper strata of society," the document said.
It is true that the joint fact-finding team's report contains very little that sounds new to most of us. Nevertheless, by providing official confirmation of our suspicions, the report may help to encourage a comprehensive solution to the problem.
However this optimism must be qualified by one nagging but potentially horrifying question. If it is true that much of the unresolved violence and unrest that has dogged the country since July last year is in some way linked to a power struggle between elements of the country's political elite, what are we to think of the spate of killings that is now spreading remorselessly out off Banyuwangi in East Java into other regions of this island? A few respected figures -- not to mention elements of the media -- have already indicated that a similar link may indeed exist here too.
If this proves true, the seeds of national disintegration that even now are stirring may grow to threaten the very unity of this nation. Political courage is required to settle all these unresolved conflicts once and for all as we line up in this last stand for our Indonesia.