[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Indonesian perception of Australia: It really isn't a laughing matter
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 09:59:37 +0100
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Indonesian perception of Australia: It really isn't a laughing matter
S.P. SETH, Sydney
In the last month or so, Indonesia has featured quite a few times on prime-time
Australian television. The context for these stories has been terrorism in
Indonesia, particularly with reference to the Bali bombings. One of these
programs was recorded in Jakarta with the participation of some high profile
Indonesian media personalities, including some Indonesian students with
Australia as their special subject. It was intended to assess for the
Australian audience back home Indonesian perceptions of Australia around the
anniversary of the first Bali bombings.
It was a good humored debate, with some Indonesian participants taking a dig at
Australia for its arrogance and insolence by stereotyping Indonesia as a
terrorist territory, with its nearly 90 percent Muslim population. One
intervention was particularly interesting, when someone pointed out how
respectful Australia was toward Indonesia under the Soeharto regime. When the
Australian host of the program jokingly asked if this meant that Indonesians
might like to revert back to those times, everyone simply laughed it off.
But it is not a laughing matter. Let us see why Soeharto had to go. There were
many reasons. But two stand out, in terms of the immediacy of his departure
from power. First: there was the Asian economic crisis of 1997/98 which
Soeharto could not overcome, as the West (International Monetary Fund et al.)
refused to bail out his regime. Second: they would not do it (except through
the IMF austerity regime, making Indonesia an economic basket case) as
Indonesia was no longer strategically as important after the end of the Cold
War.
Imagine such a crisis at the height of the Cold War with the prospects of
communists, at home and abroad, exploiting it for political and strategic
gains. The U.S. would have done everything to ward it off. There was no such
strategic compulsion for the U.S. in the late 1990s. With Indonesia in economic
and political crisis, Soeharto had nowhere to go but quit to escape being
thrown out. And he wisely chose the former.
But how is this related to the present situation? Like in the Cold War period
when communism was the enemy, it is now terrorism. In some ways, terrorism is
even more pernicious because it appears to be anywhere and everywhere. Its
practitioners are Muslim extremists, keen to blow up the world to create a new
paradise for those who share their beliefs.
In this sense, they are self-appointed. And their natural homes are in
predominantly Muslim countries. Among them Indonesia has the largest Muslim
population in the world. It has Jamaah Islamiyah, the ideological fountainhead
of Indonesian and South East Asian extremism. The terrorists in Indonesia are
real as proven by the two Bali bombings, and other attacks at a hotel and the
Australian embassy. Therefore, it is imperative that this danger be dealt with
effectively.
Indonesia has only recently transited into a democratic system from a 30-year
dictatorship. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has the distinction of being the first
directly elected president after the long Soeharto tyranny. It is a great
achievement in the country's democratic functioning.
The Soeharto oligarchy was a wasted period in political terms because its very
arbitrary nature did not allow a self-sustaining legitimate pluralist system to
flower and mature. Since his political demise, a pluralist political culture is
growing to provide the foundations of a healthy constitutional and
institutional structure. It has a long way to go, though, before it can
withstand pressures to whittle or manipulate it.
There is always a tendency, anywhere in the world, to find short cuts to deal
with terrible times and crimes. It is happening in old democracies like
Britain, the U.S. and Australia, where a panoply of antiterror laws to
over-ride civil liberties have been enacted. There is no convincing proof,
though, that repressive laws will do the job of tackling terrorism any better
than the existing laws. But it is still happening.
The only consolation, if at all, is that with older democracies their
institutional maturity, combined with public debate (even though constrained
under new laws) provides some checks and balances. The new antiterror laws in
countries championing democracy for the world are a poor reflection on their
credentials, when their governments are prepared to abridge their own democracy
when faced with challenges.
But for new democracies, like Indonesia, such short cuts are perilous, because
of the danger of relapsing into the dreaded old system. The case in point is
the presidential order to reactivate the TNI's old role to tackle internal
security, such as terrorism. As TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said, "we
will also activate the territorial command up to the village level."
As is well known, under Soeharto the Army's territorial role was mostly used to
create a climate of fear, intimidation and political repression. And that
mind-set in the Army will take a long time to change.
It is not suggested that Susilo has any dark political motives behind his order
to involve the army in the fight against terrorism. He is saddened and angry at
the terrorist bombings for its indiscriminate killings and for tarnishing
Indonesia's international image. And he apparently believes that the Army will
do a better job of eliminating terrorism. But there is need for extreme
caution, knowing that Soeharto used similar instrumentalities to deal with
communism and communists, when an estimated 500,000 so-called communists were
eliminated. Indonesia is still bearing the scars of it.
Susilo is no Soeharto, and the times are now different. But Susilo is under
pressure by the United States and Australia to tighten his country's antiterror
regime, which will inevitably curtail civil liberties, leading to the use of
arbitrary powers.
Indonesia embarked on democracy when the Western countries refused to bale out
the Soeharto regime during the Asian economic crisis. Now, as in their own
countries, they are pressuring Indonesia's new democracy to curtail, if not
reverse the process.
In an earlier era, during the Cold War, Soeharto's anti-communist credentials
and crusade won him support and plaudits from the United States and Australia.
Today, Susilo is being cast in the role of a fighter against global terrorism
in his country. How this will square with Indonesia's nascent democracy would
remain to be seen!
The writer is a freelance writer based in Sydney.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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