Indonesia burns, its leaders slumber

Indonesia's top leadership appeared to be playing a game of one- upmanship as the Dayaks were massacring the Madurese, writes AMIT BARUAH.

THE KILLING fields of Kalimantan are a telling commentary on the state of Indonesia. For 11 days as the violence raged, the authorities did nothing. Indonesia, it appeared, had no Government; the law of the jungle was allowed to prevail in Central Kalimantan province.

The indigenous Dayak population, furious with migrant Madurese settlers, embarked on what can only be called a killing spree aimed at ousting those who had been settled by the Government in Central Kalimantan. As the debate raged in Indonesia on whether or not the President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, should return home from his foreign tour, the Dayaks, it appeared, lived and operated in another world.

They went about their job systematically, killing 118 Madurese in one go after the refugees came out of the jungles. Their bodies were dumped where they were killed with machetes. Some reports even speak of heads being displayed as trophies by the Dayaks. An Associated Press reporter quoted an eyewitness about the killings in Parenggean: ``As they got down from the trucks they were killed right way.... Chop chop! There was no way they could run. They fell as they were chopped.''

``After the Parenggean refugees had been in the jungles for three days, local Government officials secured an agreement with the Dayaks to allow the Madurese to be evacuated peacefully.... Believing the authorities promise to protect them, about 390 (refugees) emerged from the jungle on Sunday.

``But a few hours later, about 60 Dayaks armed with homemade weapons arrived at the (Government) office... they cut off a woman's head and kicked it down the street... the outnumbered police fled the building without firing a shot. The Dayaks then herded 118 of the refugees onto trucks and drove them to a nearby soccer field. They forced the Madurese out of the vehicles and killed them.''

A total of 469 people have so far been killed, the toll, in fact, could be much higher. It is not for the first time that such killings have taken place - 3,000 people were killed in 1997 in Kalimantan.

Clearly, the Suharto era policy of resettling people from the islands of Java and Madura to relieve population pressure has failed. The industrious Madurese, it would appear, have marginalised the Dayaks even further with logging companies taking over their land and forests.

``The roots of the current crisis were created by General Suharto, who forcibly split and distributed ethnic communities around Indonesia to weaken their communal power. Ironically, the idea was that this would strengthen the nation by fostering a common Indonesian nationality at the expense of independent ethnic identities. But it didn't work. Rather than bringing various ethnicities together as countrymen, the forced mixing is tearing Indonesia apart,'' The Asian Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.

As Indonesians and the world focussed on the sheer barbarity of the crimes, the country's top leadership, it appeared, was playing a game of one-upmanship. The President declared from one foreign capital after another that he had been told by senior Ministers that there was no need for him to return home; that the situation was being exaggerated by the press.

For her part, the Vice-President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, acting as the Head of State in the absence of Mr. Wahid, visited Central Kalimantan only on Friday, after everything was over. In any case, the inability of Ms. Megawati to issue clear instructions to the police and the military, who stood and watched the violence, is a damning indictment of the inability of the Government to perform its most fundamental duty - ensuring the safety of life and limb. For its part, the military would be only too happy to expose the inadequacies in a civilian, democratic structure.

As one Indonesian analyst put it, the Government had taken on the role of the Red Cross - it was merely acting to evacuate its citizens. Whatever be the grievances of the Dayaks, and there are many, there is no place for ethnic cleansing in today's world - that message was, unfortunately, not sent out by the custodians of the law.

Was Gus Dur (the President's nickname) allowing Ms. Megawati, waiting in the wings to take over, to preside over a messy situation? Was politics governing the President's decision to continue with his foreign tour at all costs?

Neighbours believe that the country is drifting along; the absence of leadership can create problems for the entire region - given the fact that Indonesia, with its 210-million-strong population, is easily the largest country in South East Asia.

Indonesia's leaders seem to have failed their people. The violence in Kalimantan adds to the long list of problems in Aceh, Irian Jaya and in the Maluku islands. Where is this troubled country headed?

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