Simply to remind Amien Rais

In his letter of Jan. 15, 2000, On call for jihad, Haris Adriansyah wondered what my precise target was beside criticizing Amien Rais personally. My only target is simply to make Amien Rais think about his political commitment as a nonsectarian national leader.

It is Amien Rais' job to urge the government to take stern action to stop the prolonged bloodshed in Maluku. However, he should not take sides with one of the two conflicting parties, which might incite people to take more harsh action against each other. As Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Amien Rais is expected to calm down any communal conflict, and at the same time seek a peaceful and amicable resolution.

I share Haris Adriansyah's deep concern about thousands of people in Maluku who have been badly suffering from communal violence over the last year. Hence, the most urgent thing to do is to end the violence, then follow this with legal action against those who were involved in orchestrating the conflict and violence. In this regard, I agree with President Abdurrahman Wahid's stance that dispatching people to Maluku will likely create more problems.

BENNY SUBIANTO

Jakarta