The east in turmoil

The turmoil that has erupted in South Sulawesi in eastern Indonesia to demand an independent state of Sulawesi is a reaction to the outcome of the recently concluded People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session in Jakarta. The decisions which the MPR has taken is considered to ignore the aspirations of the people of the eastern parts of the country.

Since this is a movement that was set in motion in a spontaneous manner by young people, it is quite possible that this student-led action will soon lose steam. One thing, however, should not be overlooked. The aspirations which those students are expressing has old roots.

Like the PRRI movement in West Sumatra in 1957, the related Permesta (People's Total Resistance Movement) in Sulawesi that same year may serve as an example. As its leaders insisted, Permesta was essentially a movement to advance development in that region. It was a movement to obtain wide-ranging autonomy for the eastern Indonesian region on the basis of the national motto of Unity in Diversity.

That movement was admittedly politically charged. Nevertheless, it was not a separatist movement. Rather, it was a movement to demand justice and respect for the regions' right of existence by taking into consideration their ethnic and historical backgrounds.

At present, we tend only to heed the formal aspects of our existence as a nation. We forget to try to build a suitable consensus regarding the aspects of ethnicity and identity. We forget to take into consideration our regions' cultural pride, their historical rights and their indigenous ways of lives, branding instead such expressions as "primordialist" and provincialist.

Let us therefore as of now try to view such expressions of regional discontent without preconceived feelings of disapproval and try to reach for a consensus instead.

-- Republika, Jakarta