Unfinished messy affair

Unfinished messy affair

As much as the government insists that the riot which rocked
Jakarta in July last year is a closed case, we find this decision
hard to accept. The July 27 incident, as the case has come to be
known, has left many unanswered questions for the nation,
especially the government.

There is the question of 23 people who went missing in the
riot, as listed by the National Commission on Human Rights. There
is the question of what provoked the riot in the first place,
which, again according to the commission, pointed to a government
role, albeit an indirect one. There is also the plethora of
lawsuits being heard in various courts in Jakarta and across the
country, which are connected in one way or another with that
incident.

The July 27 affair is indeed a big blot on the recent history
of the nation's political development. It is something that
everyone, and not just the government, wants to put behind them
quickly so that we can all get on with our lives.

The riot was the ugly culmination of a conflict within the
minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). It was sparked by the
violent attack on the PDI headquarters, then occupied by
supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri, by people claiming to be
supporters of Soerjadi.

This was not an internal affair of the party, as some people
would have us believed. And even if it was, this conflict had
reverberations that went well beyond the party's tiny circle and
took on national proportions. Judging by the strong foreign
reaction to the riot and the events leading up to it, the July 27
affair also has some international implications.

It is true that the government has given its explanation about
the riot. And it is also true that some of the rioters have been
tried and convicted and served their time in jail. And the nation
conducted the general election in May as scheduled, with the full
participation of the PDI under the government-backed chairman
Soerjadi. These however, are not sufficient grounds to close the
book on the messy July 27 affair.

Many of the questions posed by the National Commission on
Human Rights have not been answered, or if they have, they were
not given in a satisfactory manner. The supporters of Megawati
Soekarnoputri, the deposed PDI chairperson, still carry a sense
of injustice because those who attacked them on that July morning
are still roaming free. The election debacle, which the Soerjadi-
led PDI suffered in May, should also say something about the
party's popularity, or unpopularity, not to mention its
legitimacy, after the riot.

Unless the nation comes to terms with the many unanswered
questions regarding the July 27 affair, then they will continue
to haunt us for a long time to come. We have plenty of examples
to know we want to avoid a repetition.

There is the bloody incident in a Dili cemetery in November
1991, in which dozens of East Timorese people went missing and
have not been found to this day. The question continues to
surface at various international human rights meetings and will
likely continue until an acceptable official explanation is given
of their whereabouts. Even relatives of dozens of missing people
from a bloody riot in Tanjung Priok district in North Jakarta in
1984 still question the fate of their loved ones 13 years later.

Everyone would like to see the July 27 affair closed as soon
as possible. For some, especially those who lost relatives, they
want to put an end to the suffering and anxiety as quickly as
possible, before it turns into frustration. In other words, it is
in the interest of everyone, not just the government, to resolve
the case as soon as possible.

The government still holds the key, though. It boils down to a
question of political will to resolve the problem thoroughly.
Unfortunately, the government seems to have developed a habit of
closing the book on such national tragedies prematurely.
Declaring the July 27 affair case closed will not get rid of the
problem.