Reconciliation needed to curb new clashes
Five years ago, the bloody May riots erupted nationwide and claimed almost 1,200 fatalities following the shootings of four Trisakti University students at their campus in West Jakarta.
The incident triggered the public's anger and led to the downfall of the 32-year-long authoritarian regime of then President Soeharto.
Catholic priest, Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi, invited all people to erect monitoring posts to provide information, relief and advocacy for the riot victims. Relying on voluntary membership from many people, his Team of Volunteers for Humanity managed to obtain data which depicted the magnitude of the bloody incidents.
The group brought up a shocking report that the riots -- particularly the hatred expressed toward Chinese-Indonesians -- were pre-arranged, well-organized, systematic and allegedly by- design.
Data from the group said 1,190 people died after being trapped and burned during fires and 27 died of gunshot wounds. Thirty-one people are still missing and 91 were injured. In addition, 168 women and children were raped or sexually assaulted during the unrest, 20 of whom died or committed suicide.
It has been five years since that turbulent time, but the tragedy remains unsolved even now. Not a single person has been taken to court for all the bloodshed. Nobody has been blamed, including those who were supposed to be responsible for upholding the country's security at that time.
Worse still, the circle of violence continues. People also begin to forget the price we had to pay to topple the authoritarian regime and replace it with a more democratic regime.
Sandyawan, the 1997 winner of the prestigious human rights award Yap Thiam Hien, talked to The Jakarta Post's Damar Harsanto recently about the May riot victims and what the people and the government must do to stop the circle of violence in the country.
Question: Five years on how do you see the fate of the May riots case?
Answer: Well, sorry to say there is no substantial improvement in our society's system.
Let me start with the May riots. It's crystal clear that it was a tragedy of violence in politics. It's also clear in our report earlier that the riots were well-planned, systematic and affecting areas nationwide claiming more than 1,200 fatalities. No doubt, the riots were a crime against humanity.
We found that the riots resulted from heightened conflicts between sources of economics and business, sources of politics including military and even religious groups. Every source wants to maintain power. But, of course, the cause of the violence outbreak was never singular. Many corroborating factors took part to create the situation which led to the riots.
After five years, we see there has been a systematic and well- organized process to erase the people's memory over the bloody incident by continuously negating all facts.
For example, (Jakarta) Governor Sutiyoso wants to erect the so-called "reconciliation monument" in Glodok, West Jakarta. It was one of the most severely affected areas during the anti- Chinese riots which were tainted by rapes and lootings by unidentified masses. (Sutiyoso was the Jakarta Military Commander when the riots erupted).
It's a clear effort to cover up real facts that the riots was not merely horizontal conflicts but in fact resulting from the conflicts between elite groups which systematically manipulate the poor condition of the society.
Look what we have now. All human rights perpetrators in the May tragedy, also in other incidents like in East Timor for instance, still roam freely and untouched. But the process of fooling the people advances more rapidly than the learning process of the public awareness.
Q: The May tragedy led to the downfall of then President Soeharto and marked the new era of reform. What are the positive outcomes in your opinion so far?
A: By the end of B.J. Habibie's tenure (who replaced Soeharto), people have been enjoying enormous freedom to organize themselves and express their feelings and opinions.
We have witnessed many movements that have been established, including non-governmental organizations which address a wide range of issues in the society. On the other hand, the victims themselves, have learnt to hold joint efforts to struggle for justice.
Through the crisis and tragedy, people always learn a new way to build a new system which is not corrupt. They learn to help each other and share memories which strengthens their solidarity and political awareness.
Unfortunately, mob politics and self-centered party politics have been undermining all positive outcomes in the society. The kinship system blooming during the crises, have been ruined by vested interests from various groups and parties to gain power and win the people's support.
We can find that after a tragedy, a party will take advantage of the tragedy to launch a campaign and show off their deep concern of the people's suffering.
A few months ago, when fire razed hundreds of homes at the Ciliwung riverbank in Manggarai, South Jakarta, 12 banners from different parties were erected the next day although they might donate nothing to the victims.
Q: You have been helping the May riots victims for a long time. What exactly do those people demand?
A: The victims and their families no longer demand compensation for them nor rehabilitation for the families' members (who were killed during the riots) as criminals and looters. They believe that any restitution and rehabilitation won't bring back their family members or heal their psychological trauma.
What they want is a total renewal of the whole system in the society so that such tragedy won't happen in the future and the circle of violence stops.
Of course, they still want the culprits or those who were responsible for the security in the country at that time to admit their faults and start the reconciliation process. Then, let the legal proceedings judge what is the best for them.
Q: What is your recommendation for the government and the society to take immediate action which is urgent and important to the improvement of our society?
A: The long term agenda of creating a more humane society based on solidarity, self-help and critical awareness must be a priority for the country's leaders -- whoever is in power.
The first thing to do is a humanitarian pause in which all parties in the society and the government reflect with a peaceful mind, deep consideration, based on their sound conscience to think of how to stop the machine of political violence by breaking up the circle of violence.
Perhaps, we can learn a similar lesson like the people in Rwanda, Latin America, Yugoslavia or countries in the southern part of Africa with their commissions of truth and reconciliation. They managed to gather facts to uncover many atrocities occurred in their countries while at the same time held an intensive interaction between people who become victims and those who have instigated the violence.
The interaction ended up with reconciliation. Then, reconciliation become the touchstone to build a new system of law solidly based on universal standards of human rights in politics, economics and culture.
Q: What will happen if all those measures are not implemented?
A: There will be more victims. We have learned lots, let say, from the spate of bombings on Christmas in 2000 to the Bali bombings which carried along devastating social and economic impacts to the country as well the people.
I'm just wondering how short the memory of our top officials are, as they could easily revise their statements, and shift blame for those responsible in the bombings to different groups they dislike like the Free Aceh Movement, Islamic militants or Jamaah Islamiyah, while always covering up the fact that many security officers might have played a role in the bombings.
The circle of violence must be stopped, otherwise there will be more victims. And, the craziest thing is people will get used to witnessing lots of violence. We will witness our society in total collapse.