The evil among us
The evil among us
Barbaric! No other word describes the anger and exasperation
many of us feel at hearing the news of the killing and beheading
of three teenage girls in the Central Sulawesi district of Poso
on Saturday. No decent human being could have done such a
sadistic thing. The perpetrators were evil. What motivated them
to do such an heinous act is beyond reason and comprehension.
Our heart goes out to the bereaved families and friends of the
three students of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church Senior
High School. May their souls rest in peace, and may their loved
ones who are left behind be given the strength and courage to
face and go through this ordeal.
There is no doubt that the killings, and the method -- their
severed heads were placed a distance away from their bodies --
were acts of provocation to reignite conflict between Muslims and
Christians. Poso, where people of the two religions are
relatively equal in number, has seen more than its share of
brutal communal conflicts in the last five years.
The timing, less than a week before Muslims celebrate the end
of Ramadhan, reminds us too much of the way the religious
conflict in Ambon was started in 1999.
It began with a petty fight between a transit van driver and
his conductor. That fight turned into a brawl between their two
neighboring villages delineated along religious lines, but then
quickly spread to become a full blown conflict between Muslims
and Christians across Ambon and other parts of Maluku.
More than a century of peaceful coexistence between Muslims
and Christians in Ambon was destroyed overnight. There is only
one explanation for this: The presence of agent-provocateurs who
were prepared to go to any lengths, including sadistic murders,
to promote their political agenda. And they chose their timing
close to major religious celebrations. The initial fight in Ambon
took place in January 1999 just a day before Idul Fitri and less
than a month after Christmas.
One valuable lesson we should take from Ambon is that neither
religious community in Poso need be provoked by Saturday's
killings. The flame in Ambon took many years to douse precisely
because both sides vowed to avenge every single life lost.
The killing of the three girls is understandably bound to
enrage Christians in Poso and would prompt calls for retaliation.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has rightly condemned the
murders and appealed for calm and restraint. But appeals alone
are not sufficient to contain people's anger.
The President should make sure that the murderers as well as
those who ordered the killings are publicly identified and
arrested. He should make sure that the police and the
intelligence agencies have the resources needed to catch them. He
should ask for no less from the police whose job it is to protect
people's lives. Heads must even roll for what is clearly another
major lapse on their part.
And police have to catch them fast. We cannot emphasize enough
that speed is of the essence. Poso Christian leaders can only
restrain their followers for a brief period before anger sets in
and becomes uncontrollable. If the police fail to show results
soon, the rage of Christians will translate into acts of
retaliation.
Before long, Poso will be set on fire once more.
Except that this time around, there is no guarantee that the
religious conflicts which had been largely confined to Poso and
Ambon, will not spread to other parts of Indonesia. Already, we
are seeing signs of uneasiness among non-Muslims because of the
government's seemingly constant failure to protect them. And we
are seeing signs of growing religious radicalism and even
intolerance between religious communities.
The state's ability to ensure peaceful coexistence between
religious communities and to guarantee religious freedom in this
country, is being tested to the limit.
From the terrorist attacks by radical Islamic groups in the
predominantly Hindu Bali, to the acts of vandalism against
churches and religious sects considered by conservative Muslim
leaders as heretic, and now to the killing of three Christian
girls, all raise a much more serious question about the
government's commitment as well as its ability to protect the
rights of religious minorities and to enable them to freely
practice their faith.
President Yudhoyono has a lot to answer for, as much as those
barbarians who committed the brutal killings on Saturday, in
explaining why intolerance, radicalism and acts of violence
including terrorism in the name of religion are becoming regular
features of our nation's life. Whatever happened to our
commitment to build a pluralist nation where our differences
strengthen rather than set us apart?