Shootings stem from policy disintegration

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)