Regional discontent threatens unity

Regional discontent threatens unity

JIMBARAN, Bali (JP): Rising regional discontent and anti-
military sentiments are two major issues that President
Abdurrahman Wahid's new government must address to prevent the
nation from disintegrating, military observers and experts said
on Saturday.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences (LIPI), pointed out at how local administrations were
allowed very few initiatives.

Policies and programs were delivered top-down to ensure
uniformity of policy throughout the archipelago, regardless of
the great diversity found on the ground, Dewi told a seminar.

The government in the past kept a very tight rein over policy
and practices, and dealt ruthlessly with incipient opposition to
over-centralization and domination by central government.

Although Jakarta's iron fist at first seemed to succeed in
pacifying the regions, in reality the policy had failed to deal
with the roots of regional discontent and has, in fact, created
new grievances, Dewi said.

Regional discontent has been an endemic problem in Indonesia
since the first days of independence in 1945, but it was severely
oppressed by the government in the past, she said, citing the
examples of South Sulawesi, Maluku, Irian Jaya, Sumatra and even
West Java in the late 1950s and 1960s.

She classified regional insurgences under three headings:
separatism, ideological movements and political-economic
discontent.

"Although in other parts of the country the situation was
never as serious as in Aceh and Irian Jaya, except East Timor
which was a very special case, the feeling of resentment against
Jakarta's repressive and arbitrary rule, as well as its lack of
concern or sensitivity for local needs, was widespread among the
population as a whole," said Dewi.

Over-centralization and an obsession with uniformity made the
national motto of unity in diversity nothing more than an empty
slogan, which led to a general feeling of alienation and
resentment against the perceived domination of Java, she said.

In this era of reform, Indonesia will not able to maintain its
unity and territorial integrity without paying serious attention
to the extreme heterogeneity of the population, and their desire
to retain their intrinsic identities within the framework of
national unity, she said.

"Each ethnic group in Indonesia wishes to cling to its
distinctive characteristics, so that unity in diversity is the
only solution for Indonesia," Dewi asserted.

Dewi, a former spokeswoman for the then president B.J.
Habibie, urged the new government to wholeheartedly implement the
laws on regional autonomy and on fiscal balance which will allow
a significant devaluation of power from the central to regional
governments at the district level.

The local government will also be able to retain a much
greater share of the natural resources available in their areas,
she said.

Andi A. Mallarangeng, a lecturer at the Institute for
Governmental Studies (IIP), said the new government should loosen
its grip and domination over the regions, let them manage their
own affairs and not repeat the mistakes of the previous regime,
which used the regions simply as a source of revenue.

"The government should not belittle the threats of several
provinces to separate from the central government. It must be
able to accommodate their dissatisfaction," Andi said

Harold Crouch, a senior fellow at the Australian National
University, said growing criticism against the military indicated
that it had lost the respect of much of the public and was indeed
hated by many because of its human rights violations and its
brutality.

The government's failure to fully investigate cases of human
rights abuses involving military personnel has resulted in
increasing demands for the military to return to their barracks,
Crouch said.

"This new political atmosphere, in which the military are
under constant criticism and condemnation, has produced a great
sense of demoralization among military officers who had grown
accustomed to their high status under the old regime, which
allowed them to enjoy the perquisites of office and immunity from
public criticism," said Crouch.

He also warned the new civilian administration to learn from
the recent military coup in Pakistan which was not protested by
civilians as they were also not satisfied with the corrupt
civilian regime.

"There is no reason to assume that democracy in Indonesia must
follow the Pakistani path, but it is better to learn from the
mistakes of others than to suffer from the same mistakes," he
said. (prb)