Shootings stem from policy disintegration

The nation reeled in horror when security personnel shot to death several demonstrators protesting the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in Jakarta last week. Moslem intellectual Nurcholish Madjid, rector of Paramadina Mulya University, ties last Friday's deaths to troubled social underpinnings.

Question: How do you explain the relationship between last week's shooting deaths of demonstrators, as well as other recent violent actions, and social conditions of Indonesian society?

Nurcholish: The very regrettable shooting deaths of demonstrators were just the continuation of a long series of tensions which have caused anger of society members beginning in 1959. Once I used a metaphor that we were living in the darkness of a tunnel constructed from paternalism and militarism as its structures, with its end already visible. What was miscalculated was that the distance to the tunnel's end was so short that tensions suddenly rose to an outburst (marked by Soeharto's fall from the presidency).

The shooting deaths of Trisakti University students in May, preceded by the abduction of political activists, and the recent killing spree in East Java have together caused the accumulation of serious tensions, not merely on the part of students against the military, but also on the part of the military against students.

Q: Could it be said the violent actions indicate that Indonesian society is disintegrating?

N: Sure. But not in terms of separatism. The disintegration occurs among society members.

But Chinese-Indonesians have always been the targets of recent rioting. Does this mean it is ethnicity-based disintegration?

Hostility against the Chinese is merely caused by a wide economic gap between them and the indigenous people. The late president Sukarno actually tried to reduce the gap. Even though he forbade the use of Chinese characters and the establishment of exclusively Chinese schools, Sukarno upheld their civil and political rights. But he did not spoil the Chinese economically.

In contrast, former president Soeharto did not uphold the civil and political rights of the ethnic Chinese, but he spoiled them economically by providing facilities never enjoyed by them before.

Furthermore, Soeharto emphasized his economic development policy on growth acceleration, which widened the gap further, and, intentionally or unintentionally, continued the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party's (PKI) strategies of eliminating the conglomeration of indigenous, Moslem businessmen. Before Soeharto acceded to his rule, most conglomerate owners were Moslems -- such as Hasyim Ning, Sofyan Tanjung and Rahman Tamin -- and the PKI, considering that they (Moslem conglomerate owners) were financial sources for the activities of the Moslem organization Masyumi, tried to disrupt their businesses.

Thus, the current disintegration actually stems from Soeharto's economic policy, which ignored the building of the nation as a whole.

He also thought that his propagation of the state ideology Pancasila was aimed at nation building but his regimental, doctrinal and military approach toward it made the ideology a closed one.

Q: Why can't our education system reduce the bad impact of such an approach?

N: The government's regimental approach of forcing all schools to accomplish the government-designed curricula and requiring all students to wear uniforms has led us to adopt a one-track, monolinear way of thinking. That is why we are not prepared for differences in opinions and different opinions will always be expressed with violence, which will then create clashes. That means that we are not prepared for democracy, which requires everybody to be flexible for compromise. Democracy will never develop with absolutism, a phenomenon derived from regimentism.

Q: Why doesn't our religious faith prevent us from getting involved in violence?

N: Because the government does not offer any openness in conception, people tend to follow the easiest way of things, including in their way of practicing religious teachings. The easiest way of following religious teachings is performing them symbolically, without considering the meaning of rituals. That was why some Indonesian Moslems were happy when Soeharto went on the pilgrimage and entered the Kaaba, acts considered symbols of piety.

Q: Why can't our laws deter the committing of violence which has caused the disintegration?

N: Sukarno's priority on revolution over law and Soeharto's regimental approach have made the law powerless.

The government's poor handling of cases of violence like the shooting of Trisakti University students, the abduction of political activists and the killing spree in East Java has caused it to lose the authority needed for the enforcement of laws.

Q: Then, how can we get out of this crisis?

N: We must hold a really free and just general election to look for authentic leaders whose instructions will be effective. If necessary, we should invite independent observers from the United Nations for the election. (riz)