THE MANAGEMENT OF SEPARATISM ISSUE IN MALUKU CONFLICT
By Hengky Hattu and Semmy Littik (Team of Assessment for Maluku Conflict - Sala Waku Maluku Foundation, Ambon) Death, injuries and loss of belongings since 25 April 2004 due to a new round of violence in Ambon generate a terrible pain in the hearts of the people in Maluku regardless of their religions, tribes and social background. The process of healing after 4 years of fighting suddenly jumps to low altitude. It seems the intellectual actors, terrorists and tugs benefited by the conflict have not satisfied in tormenting Maluku people. How do we know this new violence is organized/orchestrated rather than spontaneous/random? By reviewing the underlying issues of Maluku conflict since 1999, it is clear that the justifying issues shift from time to time in order to sustain the horizontal conflict. In the beginning (1999), the provocateurs and government used tribalism as the issue to justify the conflict. Yet, it was not relevant as all tribes suffered in the conflict. Thus, religious issue was manipulated to prolong the conflict. However, outsiders should come to increase the level of violence since the locals were not interested. Aside from their hereditary background as brothers and sisters, the locals cannot destroy their own neighborhood and livelihood. After the conflict ends in 2002 due to increasing international pressure and self-awareness of the locals, the issue of separatism is on. Why does this boring and insignificant issue need to be blown up? The hypothesis is that there are efforts to sustain the horizontal conflict as a long-term project camouflaged with unreal justifying issues. Since the religion-based terrorism easily attracts international attention these days, the nationalism/separatism issue is chosen because nationalism conflict is generally regarded as domestic issue and relatively free from international intervention. However, the management of separatism issue in Maluku contains inherent weaknesses that can potentially destroy the image of Indonesia internationally and speed up the disintegration of the country. First of all, the separatism issue has been wrongly identified with one religion. The dichotomy of religious groups obviously result in conflict between masses of different religions, although the Head of Maluku Office of Religious Affairs (Mr. Hasyim Marasabessy) and the Chairman of the Synod of Maluku Protestant Church (Rev. Hendriks) categorized this violence has nothing to do with religion. They were right because the conflicting groups in fact stand for Indonesia. No justification for pro-Indonesia group to destroy houses and churches funded and built by Indonesia, or killed pro-Indonesia supporters, including children, women and the innocents. The anarchy and indiscriminate destructions and killings by the so-called pro-Indonesia group show that the nationalism/separatism issue only conceals the religious radicalism/terrorism. In fact national political parties in Indonesia contain members from various religions in Indonesia. Thus, identifying one religious group as a separatist or a nationalist group in Maluku conflict is immoral and foolish. The field evidences can easily destroy the nationalism/separatism issue as the roots of the new Ambon violence because the security forces shoot at the pro-Indonesia groups that break the laws. The international communities will certainly perceive this violence as religious terrorism encouraged and tolerated by the Government of Indonesia. The second weakness is that separatism/nationalism issue is not popular in Maluku. In fact, the government officials in Jakarta and Ambon, consciously or na�vely, love to blow up this issue each year closed to April 25 (the South Maluku Republic Day). The Major of Ambon, Mr. M.J. Papilaya, called that Day as "annual entertainment" for the public since a small number of separatists and noisy security officials busily prepare "the party" while the public at large are not interested in their show. Daily life in Maluku is tiring enough to care for the past political nostalgia. This issue is unworthy and insignificant for Maluku people. In fact, the local communities generally make sure no separatist ceremony in their neighborhood. The people usually find the separatist flags in trees or poles, while the security personnel only come to take them down. It means that the people of Maluku fully comprehend the separatism/nationalism issue. Most people do not understand why the police arrested the separatists after their flag ceremony and did not stop the ceremony. In fact the law enforcement officials in Maluku already knew the time and place of the ceremony. The central and local government, including the security officials, must learn from those facts to avoid acting naively in this case. Otherwise, the government can be blamed as the provocateur of public chaos using separatism/ nationalism issue. By continually talking about the separatist activities in news media, the government (including the security officials) helps to boost the popularity and image of the separatist group. Indeed, the reverse action is needed through low-profile interactive and persuasive approach in the field, in terms of open dialogs and public education in civic and legal matters. The aims of this approach are to promote good understanding between the government and the people, and to improve self-awareness of individuals and security of their immediate community. The other weakness of separatism issue in Maluku is that this issue has no weight in international level. Besides lacking an armed wing, this group is not popular in local communities. By comparison, the East Timor movement enjoyed popular support of the locals, completed with a political wing (Fretelin), armed forces (Falintil), skillful international lobbyist (Ramos Horta), charismatic national leader (Xanana Gusmao) and extensive international network (East Timor Alert Network, ETAN). The East Timor issue was attractive internationally, i.e. the invasion of Indonesia to the sovereign nation of East Timor. These combinations made the position of Indonesian government difficult in international community. The former Foreign Affairs Minister of Indonesia, Mr. Ali Alatas, called it as "rubbles inside Indonesia shoes". Furthermore, the current separatist group in Maluku emerged in the peak of Maluku conflict. So, the people of Maluku in grass-root level know exactly that this group has nothing to do with Maluku conflict since 1999. It is proven by the fact that this group was rejected from attending the Malino peace negotiation between Moslems and Christians from Maluku in 2002 without any impact. Oddly, the Deputy of Army Commander Lt. Gen. Joko Santoso, the former Maluku Army Regional Commander, naively blamed the separatist group as the roots of Maluku conflict (Siwalima newspaper, 24 April 2004). Evidently, the separatist group can hold flag ceremony and independent day freely and publicly every year unarmed. The security forces and general public know when and where exactly they will proceed with the gathering. Therefore, the solution does not need military approach, but interactive-persuasive dialogs and law enforcement because the Indonesian laws have been completed with respective punishment for every offense. At present democratic society, high-ranking officials must exercise and learn how to communicate and guide the society with elegant and non-militaristic opinions because the people of Maluku have acquired higher social and emotional intelligence after 4 years manipulated by the elites. Speaking publicly without consistent actions merely show the naivety of the government and give an impression that the government is deliberately provoking unstable public emotion in Maluku. The excess of public conditioning through mass media is more dangerous than the flag ceremony of the separatist group. Unwise handling of this issue will potentially rises problems for the Government of Indonesia in international level, if the separatist group is able to use authentic field evidences showing the Government officials (including the security officers) as the provocateurs of Ambon violence, consciously or unconsciously. These evidences may also show the failure of Indonesian government to protect the civilians resulting in the destruction of the offices of UNDP and other international organizations in Ambon, tortures and killings of innocents including babies, children, women and old people, and destruction of civilian belongings by the self-proclaimed the defenders of Indonesia sovereignty. The international community is very sensitive with the issues of children, women, genocide, terrorism and militarism. In conclusion, the separatist issue is not worthy to justify Maluku conflict. However, if this issue is deliberately forced to rationalize the ongoing horizontal conflict in Maluku for the sake of the elites, willfully or not, we will repeat the failures in handling the East Timor case. In East Timor, the wrongdoings of local security officers and local government ruined the image of Indonesian government in the eyes of international communities and East Timor people. Eventually, the East Timorese and international communities became sympathetic to the struggles of Fretelin/Falinitil resulting in free Timor Leste nation and human right violation by Indonesian armed forces, police, civilian officials and tugs. Hopefully we can avoid the same rock. We wish that our hypothesis is wrong, so that peace and prosperity will come back soon to Maluku. Ambon, 30 April 2004 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/BRUplB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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