[Nasional-e] Megawati calls on parliament to bring in new emergency powers/Don't
sacrifice Indonesian reforms
munindo
munindo@brd.de
Wed Oct 16 12:12:35 2002
des weiteren
South China Morning Post
October 15, 2002
Al-Qaeda, military top list of suspects
VAUDINE ENGLAND in Kuta
International Herald Tribune
October 15, 2002 Op-Ed
After Bali's Oct. 12
Don't sacrifice Indonesian reforms
By Sidney Jones
**************************
South China Morning Post
October 15, 2002
Megawati calls on parliament to bring in new emergency powers
VAUDINE ENGLAND and MARIANNE KEARNEY in Kuta
President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her cabinet agreed yesterday that
Indonesia now faces an emergency situation due to the bomb attacks on
Bali, and that emergency powers are necessary to deal with it.
"We call on the leadership in parliament to support the government
actions. This is like an emergency war scenario," Minister for State
Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi told the South China Morning Post. He was speaking
during a surprise visit to Kuta, along with the president's husband Taufik
Kiemas and an entourage of arliamentarians late last night.
Mr Laksamana said Ms Megawati was now drafting a decree on how to deal
with the emergency situation, and hoped for fast-track approval of
policies from the parliament.
Just what the emergency powers might mean was left unclear by Mr
Laksamana.
Marzuki Achmad, a member of parliament for the Suharto-era Golkar party
and M. S. Kaban, from the Islam-based Star Crescent Party, both said
parliament would support Ms Megawati's call for more powers. "Yes, we
agree. We need something like the ISA [Malaysia and Singapore's draconian
internal security acts]. The people want it, not just the government. We had
something like it before but people said it was too strong," said Mr Marzuki.
However, by cracking down on militant groups, Ms Megawati risks coming
under attack from some Muslim politicians and alienating some of
Indonesia's 190 million Muslims.
"She has no future if she doesn't crack down," said Wimar Witoelar, a
political analyst. "But she should not do so in a pattern of obviously
cowing to [US President George W.] Bush."
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who used to lead the largest Muslim
group, Nadhlatul Ulema, again called on the government to arrest Abu
Bakar Bashir, the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah. The group, which
the US links to al-Qaeda, is believed to have planned terror attacks across
Southeast
Asia.
Mr Bashir has denied involvement in the Bali bombing.
Yesterday, prosecutors in Manila said two members of Jemaah Islamiah
were involved in buying explosives in the Philippines for use in a
foiled plot to bomb Western targets in Singapore.
Analysts point out that if the investigation of the Bali blasts is not
credible and the government begins targeting Mr Bashir's or other Muslim
groups without sufficient proof of their involvement, other politicians
will capitalise on it.
Already, Vice-President Hamzah Haz, who regularly courts the leaders of
militant Muslim groups, has said he does not believe any of the hardline
groups such as Laskar Jihad or Abu Bashir were involved.
A senior leader of the moderate Muslim Nahdlatul Ulema said this
incident would not have happened had the president been willing to
arrest and imprison hardline groups earlier. Ali Maschan said the government had
been reluctant to crack down on such groups, partly out of fear of a backlash
but also because the military often backed them to make Indonesia look more
unstable and more in need of a strong military force.
"I predict that the military will win the next elections," said one
analyst.
***********************
South China Morning Post
October 15, 2002
Al-Qaeda, military top list of suspects
VAUDINE ENGLAND in Kuta
Diplomats and investigators probing the bombing are in no doubt it
was a terrorist act, but identifying the perpetrators - and their allies
-
remains a guessing game.
Snippets of information point to two leading theories: that the bombing
was the work of al-Qaeda, in league with local militant Muslim groups,
or that members of the Indonesian military were involved.
Most analysts, and the chief security minister, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, say the answer is probably a combination of local and foreign
involvement.
Investigators are withholding hard evidence for any theory. One source
close to local police said he was waiting for the results of forensic
tests from foreign laboratories, which would take three days to come back.
Local security guards at the scene of the Kuta bar blast do not believe
initial claims it was a car-bomb. In the dense traffic on that street on
a Saturday night, it would have been impossible to co-ordinate the
timing with the other two blasts - one near the US Consulate in Bali and one
near the Philippine Consulate in North Sulawesi.
"We think the explosive must have been placed in a hole under the
pavement," security guard Nyoman Agus Putra said.
In a sign that the explosion is being investigated seriously, unlike
previous bombings in Jakarta, the bomb site is firmly cordoned off and
journalists, mourners and onlookers are not allowed to see behind
plastic sheeting.
Adherents of the conspiracy theory involving possibly rogue members of
the military take note of several unexplained events at the Bali
military command office two nights before the explosion.
"There was a new tank, about 20 other new vehicles and at least 25 men
in black clothes without insignia all milling around the command post,
and it looked pretty weird," a resident said.
He also reported the presence of "suspicious characters" at public
gatherings in recent days who were "asking a lot of questions about the
feelings in Bali about radical Islam".
Two senior Western diplomats based in Jakarta said they feared the
answer to the bombing would not be straightforward. "One always wonders
with such incidents, and we've had a lot of them here, just where you
draw the line between terrorists and law enforcers. We have to look at who
benefits from this tragedy and, as so often, the men in uniform have a lot to
gain," one said.
Wimar Witoelar, the writer and spokesman for former president
Abdurrahman Wahid, agreed. "I think the possibility of rogue military
involvement cannot be ruled out," he said.
"I've no quarrel with the idea al-Qaeda might be involved, but we have
to also examine the role of the usual suspects. Many of Indonesia's
previous bombings were never solved when there were probably rogue
military personnel involved. And they have the motivation - when things are
seriously destabilised, people start talking like my neighbour is now, saying
that maybe we need another Suharto back in charge."
Amid the lack of evidence, the most obvious assumption is that these
bombings were the work of al-Qaeda-linked operatives.
This theory requires acceptance of the series of regional and CIA
intelligence reports issued in recent months, based on the results of
interrogation of a handful of alleged terror suspects.
These paint a picture of the Jemaah Islamiah group originating from the
Islamic compound of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and spreading across
Malaysia to the Muslim south of the Philippines.
"All the allegations against me are groundless. I challenge them to
prove anything," Abu Bakar Bashir said. "I suspect [the bombing] was
engineered by the United States and its allies to justify allegations
that Indonesia is a base for terrorists."
Several Indonesian academics have been quoted as believing the same
thing, while the government remains silent.
****************
International Herald Tribune
October 15, 2002
Op-Ed
After Bali's Oct. 12
Don't sacrifice Indonesian reforms
By Sidney Jones
JAKARTA As New Yorkers found out, it makes a world of difference when
terrorism hits home. Before the bombs exploded in Bali on Saturday
night, most Indonesians and many foreigners were skeptical about U.S.
warnings
that Al Qaeda operatives were active in Indonesia. After the carnage in
Kuta, although there is as yet no evidence or claim of responsibility by any
radical Muslim group, the atmosphere is radically different. "This is our World
Trade Center," one Indonesian friend said.
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the coordinating minister for
security, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told Indonesians in a television
interview that the ramifications were enormous: Tourism in Bali will be
devastated, the economy as a whole will suffer, and Indonesia's image in
the eyes of the international community will be damaged. "The targets of
this attack may have been foreigners, but whoever did this is an enemy
of us all," he said.
But what will the political impact be? It is important that the
government's reaction be tough, but not counterproductive in any of the
following ways:
A bigger role for the army. Just as some civil liberties were seriously
curtailed in the wake of Sept. 11, the impact of Oct. 12 in Indonesia
could be to set back reformists' efforts to assert civilian control over
the military. The lack of clarity over whether the police or the army is
responsible for internal security has led to deep hostility between the two
forces. Last month the army attacked the police in Binjai, North Sumatra, in a
battle that left eight people dead.
The Bali bombings could turn the tide in favor of the army, despite the
fact that the army special forces remain a possible suspect in a recent
ambush in Papua that left two foreigners and an Indonesian dead. A
worsening of communal relations. Most Balinese are Hindu, and there has been
resentment building for some time against migrants from other parts of
Indonesia, most of whom are Muslim. The resentment is economic and social, but
if a Muslim organization were seen to be behind the
bombings, it could take on a religious tinge as well. Retaliatory attacks on
Muslims would be disastrous and must be prevented.
An anti-terrorism law capable of misuse.
A draft of the new law, designed to bring Indonesia into conformity with
UN Security Council Resolution 1373, has been circulating for months.
Last week President Megawati Sukarnoputri sent it back to the Ministry
of Justice for changes. The Bali attacks may speed up
passage, but they could also lead to a circumventing of some of the
legal safeguards put in place at the insistence of reformists, who are
worried about a draconian end product that could be misused, as happened during
the regime of President Suharto.
Increase in unofficial armed organizations.
The police and army may well choose to rely on unofficial vigilante
groups and political party-linked militias to conduct patrols, monitor the
communities in which they live, and report back to the police. Increased
vigilance is desirable, but such groups are already a security nightmare in
Indonesia. With no accountability, no training and confidence that stems from
official backing, they are a social menace whose role is likely to grow as the
2004 elections approach.
Radicalizing marginal Islamist organizations.
The assumption throughout Indonesia and abroad is that a radical Muslim
group was responsible for the bombing. At the time of writing there is
no known evidence to back this up.
Nevertheless, the Indonesian government is likely to be far less
tolerant of some of the groups that have treated Osama bin Laden with
something akin to hero worship. The government has to tread carefully,
though, to ensure that it manages the difficult balance between security and
basic freedoms of
association and expression, and does not inadvertently encourage more extreme
behavior.
The Bali bombings are a tragedy, but their impact will be even worse if
they are allowed to obscure the need for steady progress toward
political reform.
The writer, who heads the office of the International Crisis Group in
Indonesia, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.
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