The Jakarta bombing

The Jakarta bombing

The Jakarta Bombing Indonesia, hit on Tuesday by its second
high-profile terrorist bombing in less than a year, is acquiring
a reputation as a soft target for international terrorism. The
country's oil, large Muslim population and strategic location are
all contributing factors. But as important as anything are the
cumulative effects of chronic misgovernment.

It isn't yet clear who is responsible for yesterday's car
bombing of the Jakarta Marriott Hotel, which killed 10 to 15
people and injured about 150. Early indications, including the
choice of an American-owned target, suggest that al-Qaeda or one
of its local affiliates may be involved.

There is nothing inevitable about Indonesia, the country with
the world's largest Muslim population, becoming a haven for
terrorists. The characteristic forms of Islam in Indonesia are
moderate and tolerant.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri enjoys far more democratic
legitimacy than her predecessors. Sadly, she has not so far used
her authority to press for needed reforms. She is not doing
nearly enough to subordinate the country's harsh and corrupt
military to civilian control and promote the rule of law. Without
this, victory over terrorism will be hard to achieve. The Bush
administration is right to offer Jakarta help in the common
struggle against terrorism. It must also insist, however, that
civil liberties and democratic accountability not become the
first victims of the Megawati government's enhanced antiterror
campaign.

Helping fight terror in Indonesia should not mean handing
unchecked power to its already unaccountable army, which remains
repressive more than five years after the fall of the Soeharto
dictatorship. Megawati has wrongly indulged the military. She has
allowed it to retain excessive influence over economic and
political life, let high-ranking officers escape accountability
for massacres in East Timor and unleashed a ruthless new campaign
against separatists in the province of Aceh. Fighting terror
effectively requires winning the cooperation of ordinary
Indonesians, not further alienating them through military
highhandedness.

-- The New York Times