[Nasional-e] [Nasional] IBRAHIM ISA -- SELECTED INDONESIAN NEWS -- FW: LN
22-10-2002 Morning
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-----Original Message-----
From: O. Mahdi [mailto:oemar@worldonline.nl]
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 7:31 AM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: LN 22-10-2002 Morning
Lydia's Newsbulletin
22-10-2002 Morning Edition
This bulletin is dedicated to the memory of Lydia Klijn, for more than 20
years active
member of the Dutch Section of Amnesty International and responsible for the
"Indonesia
& Oost-Timor Bulletin", who passed away on 1-6-2001
Indonesian Military Linked To Terrorist Groups 1
Indonesia Bomb May Have al-Qaida Link 5
Maluku separatists get two to five years imprisonment 7
Laskar Jihad will leave Poso conflict area gradually 8
Jakarta Urged To Act Against Terrorism In Return For Aid 9
Green Left Weekly
October 23, 2002
-Cover story-
Indonesian Military Linked To Terrorist Groups
BY JAMES BALOWSKI
The brutal murder of nearly 200 people in Indonesia's tourist resort of Kuta
on the island of Bali on October 12 occurred as the US is attempting to
pressure Jakarta into supporting its War on Terror. As part of this effort,
Washington and Canberra are also attempting to re-engage with the Indonesian
armed forces, the TNI.
At a speech to the first anniversary dinner of the C.E.W. Bean Foundation on
September 25, Australian defence minister Robert Hill said that Indonesia
remains of enduring strategic importance to Australia.
This strategic importance is based on the existence of what Hill describes
as: "â ¦ an arc of militant Islamic influence - albeit at the margins of
society - [which] stretches across the region, from Malaysia and Singapore
across into the southern Philippines and Indonesia, including Sulawesi and
Maluku".
While admitting that "sensitivities were obviously exacerbated by events in
East Timor in 1999â ¦" (referring to the campaign of violence unleashed by
anti-independence militia, funded and backed at the highest levels of the
TNI leadership which resulted in Washington and Canberra severing military ties
in 1998), Hill went on to say:
"Like Indonesia's other institutions, the role of the Indonesian military
forces - TNI - is evolving in a fluid and difficult environment as they move
away from the `dual function' they had under the New Order [of former
President Suharto].
"But TNI will remain a fundamentally important institution in Indonesia. Its
handling of difficult internal security problems across the archipelago will
have a crucial bearing on stability. As a secular organisation it will
remain key to the government's efforts to promote tolerance and harmony between
Indonesia's many different faiths. This is particularly important in the
context of current concerns about the potential attractiveness of radical
forms of Islam in the region.
"The current TNI leadership seems committed to developing a more
professional Indonesian military, and we are keen to assist this process. It
would be a mistake to overestimate the amount of influence Australia can have
over this
process of evolution, which after all is a matter for Indonesia. But TNI's
continuing importance in Indonesia and Indonesia's importance to Australia
mean we have an undoubted stake in the outcome."
Resuming ties with TNI
Emboldened by the climate of fear created by the Bali bombing, Hill went
further last week, saying that Australia is now considering resuming
military links with Indonesia's notorious special forces, Kopassus. "We are
aware of the role that Kopassus has in relation to counter-terrorism
responsibilities
in Indonesia, and therefore it might well be in Australian interests to
redevelop the relationship", Hill told the Australian parliament on October 16.
In the past, Washington and Canberra have repeatedly said that if military
ties were to be restored, this would not include Kopassus and the Mobile
Brigade (Brimob) which have been at the forefront of suppressing peaceful
democratic and separatists' movements.
In response to the Bean Foundation speech, Australian Financial Review
correspondent Tim Dodd wrote on September 2: "Now let us see if we can
follow this logic through. According to Defence Minister Robert Hill, in the new
uncertain international environment Australians may have to rely on the
Indonesian army to protect them from terrorists.
"And this Indonesian army is the same outfit whose special forces, the
Kopassus, are suspected by many of being involved in the murder of three
teachers in an armed ambush near the Freeport mine in Indonesia's Papua
province last month [on August 31]. The killings, in which two of the dead
and many of the wounded were American, are the most serious incidents which
could be classified as terrorism that Americans have experienced in
Indonesia for many years."
Although Dodd acknowledged that "We do not know whether or not the army was
involved in the killings" he went on to write: "But the most telling point
against Kopassus is that no seasoned observer of Papuan affairs has ruled
out the possibility that this so-called elite unit, or other soldiers for that
matter, were involved in the killings.
"The reason why is that the Indonesian army is, at best, an ill-disciplined,
poorly trained and badly equipped military force. And at its worst it can
only be described as a group of brigands specialising in protection rackets,
robbery and corruption â ¦ [it] has shown no ability whatsoever to promote
tolerance and harmony. In fact, it is a prime mover in fanning Indonesia's
most dangerous ethnic and religious conflicts."
The US has denounced the Bali bombing as a "despicable act of terror" and
claimed that the al Qaeda network is behind the attack. So far no group has
claimed responsibility and the Indonesian police say they "have no idea" who
is behind it.
Many have pointed the finger at the radical Muslim group Jemaah Islamiyah
(JI) - which allegedly has links with al Qaeda - or one of several other
radical Islamic groups operating in Indonesia.
TNI involvement?
However, the possibility of TNI involvement cannot be ruled out. The reasons
are two-fold. Firstly, the TNI has a long history of creating, funding and
backing right-wing Islamic groups which have been inciting regional and
communal violence and are used against pro-democracy groups. Secondly, the
TNI directly benefits from maintaining such conflicts, particularly in areas
such as northern Aceh, West Papua and the Maluku islands.
A report released last December by the International Crisis Group (ICG) - a
Belgium-based think tank - suggests the TNI created the network now said to
be South-East Asia's most serious terrorist threat. The report says that JI
was created in the 1970s by the head of Indonesia's military intelligence.
The goal was to compromise Muslim opponents of Suharto and to depict them as
fundamentalists.
The ICG report says that JI has its roots in the Darul Islam rebellion in
Indonesia in the 1950s which sought to transform Indonesia into an Islamic
state. Suharto seized power in 1965 after slaughtering as many as one
million communists and left-wing sympathisers - a campaign supported by
right-wing
Muslim militias trained by the predecessor of the TNI.
By the 1970s Suharto had become concerned about the opposition groups'
growing popularity and set about to discredit it. In a sting operation,
Suharto's intelligence chief General Ali Murtopo persuaded former Darul
Islam members to reactivate, ostensibly to prevent "communist infiltration".
When
they did so in 1977, the security forces arrested 185 activists and accused
them of seeking to establish a fundamentalist state.
References to JI first surfaced in court documents as the organisation the
activists thought they were setting up at Murtopo's behest.
Most of those arrested were released in the 1980s, and some - radicalised by
their experience in prison - organised to fight the Suharto dictatorship.
These included Abu Bakar Bashir, a Muslim cleric now accused by Singapore of
being JI's ringleader.
ICG country director Sidney Jones says senior TNI officials retained close
ties to the group at least through the 1980s. "If you scratch any radical
Islamic group in Indonesia, you will find some security forces involvement",
Jones told the Associated Press on August 12.
Laskar Jihad
Another of Indonesia's violent Muslim extremist groups, Laskar Jihad - which
coincidentally was officially disbanded hours before the Bali bombing - has
been supported by the TNI and high ranking members of government.
In January 2000 for example, parliamentary speaker Amien Rais and
vice-president Hamzah Haz were speakers at a rally organised by Laskar Jihad
(LJ) members calling for a holy war against Christians in the Maluku islands
if the government could not contain the violence.
When the LJ declared that it would leave for Maluku, then-president
Abdurahman Wahid explicitly ordered it not to go. But the security forces at
the Tanjung Perak port of Surabaya in East Java did nothing to stop members
of LJ boarding ships heading for Maluku.
The security forces claimed that the LJ members carried no weapons so there
was no justification to prevent their departure. They soon obtained modern
automatic weapons - presumably from sympathisers in the military - and they
are believed to have been involved in large-scale attacks on Christian
communities which led to heavy casualties.
In a letter sent to US law makers in October, a group of Indonesian human
rights organisations urged the US Congress to maintain tough conditions on
renewing US training of the TNI. Backed by reports from the State
Department, these groups argue that there has been virtually no progress by the
TNI on meeting conditions attached to any resumption of training. They note that
the TNI continues to use militias in other conflict areas, such as Aceh, Papua,
and the Maluku islands to terrorise the local population and human rights
activists, and pursue its own political and economic interests.
"Like the US government, we are also concerned about the existence of
radical Islamic groups in Indonesia. But only a very small minority of
Indonesians
are involved with these organisations, which have little to no proven
connection to international terrorist networks", the groups wrote.
"Moreover", they continued, "these groups frequently operate with covert
and, in some cases, overt support of elements of the military, police and
government. The greatest threat Indonesians face, and the greatest obstacle
to real democracy, is the military. If the standard definition of
`terrorism' is applied to events in Indonesia, then the true terrorists are the
security forces."
Any "stabilising" role the TNI may play in Indonesia will be to suppress
popular discontent as the country continues to slide into an economic,
political and leadership crisis which will only be worsened by the attack in
Bali.
Contrary to Hill's assertion that the TNI is "â ¦ a fundamentally important
institution â ¦ [which] will have a crucial bearing on stability", recent
events highlight the fact that the TNI is little more than a bunch of
murderous thugs in uniform.
***
Indonesia Bomb May Have al-Qaida Link
By IRWAN FIRDAUS
BALI, Indonesia, October 21 (AP) - Investigators piecing together evidence
from the explosion-gutted nightclub district of Bali disclosed Monday that
the main bomb was made of ammonium nitrate, a compound stockpiled by an
Islamic extremist group allied with al-Qaida.
Though police stopped short of saying that the bomb was made and planted by
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a series of terror bombings in
Southeast Asia in recent years, the use of ammonium nitrate reinforces
suspicions that the group was involved.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's moderate Muslim organizations demanded that
authorities crack down against Jemaah Islamiyah and religious extremists,
who they said represent a fringe minority of the country's 170 million Muslims.
The demands came amid a continued standoff in the town of Solo, in central
Java, between police, who want to question Jemaah Islamiyah spiritual leader
Abu Bakar Bashir, and scores of students he teachers at an Islamic boarding
school.
Bashir, 64, is hospitalized with respiratory and heart problems, though
police have said they do not believe he is really ill. They have made no
move to take him by force, but are deployed around the hospital and say they
will
wait until he recovers before questioning him.
For the third day, students from his school turned out and vowed to prevent
him from being taken away. Their determination raised fears of a possible
clash if police try to move him to Jakarta, as they have planned.
Bashir is not a suspect in the Bali bombings, but was formally arrested last
week on suspicion of being behind several church bombings in Jakarta on
Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 19 people, and in a plot to assassinate
President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Foreign countries had urged Indonesia for months to arrest him as plots and
attacks attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah mounted around Southeast Asia, but
Indonesia, fearing an extremist backlash, refused until pressure in the wake
of the Bali bombings grew too strong to resist.
Jemaah Islamiyah is known to have acquired at least four tons of ammonium
nitrate, an agricultural chemical that can be made into large car and truck
bombs.
More than 100 foreign investigators from Australia, the United States,
Britain, France, Germany and Japan have been helping Indonesian police find
evidence at the blast site in Kuta beach, a nightclub district that was
popular with young tourists.
Investigators said Monday they believed that an initial blast at Paddy's pub
was caused by a bomb containing no more than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of TNT.
The second, much deadlier, explosion at Sari's nightclub was caused by
50-150 kilograms (110-330 pounds) of ammonium nitrate.
A separate bomb near the office of the honorary U.S. consul, which caused no
casualties, contained less than 500 grams (one pound) of TNT, said Brett
Swan, a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police.
Indonesian police have questioned 70 people but made no arrests and say they
do not know whether the bombers remain in Indonesia, an archipelago of
13,000 islands.
In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his country - whose
dead and injured top the casualty lists - will fight terrorism with diplomacy,
not military force, in Southeast Asia.
Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who heads the 40
million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest terror group, said in a
radio interview that Bashir should have been arrested long ago.
``I believe that Bashir is a terrorist,'' Wahid said in a radio interview.
Wahid, who was replaced as head of state by Megawati last year, has been
sharply critical of her cautious approach toward radicals.
Megawati signed an emergency decree last week that allows terrorist suspects
to be detained for up to six months without charge, but religious moderates
have called for even tougher anti-terrorist legislation.
A U.S. consular official said that the American death toll in the Bali bomb
attack is believed to have reached seven, with two identified and five
others unidentified but presumed dead.
Thomas C. Daniels, vice consul in the port city of Surabaya, said that
figure could go higher, since 45 Americans are listed as missing.
However, the vast majority of the 45 are unlikely to be victims of the
blast, Daniels stressed. Several nations have large numbers of missing that have
not been tracked down since the attack - but that may mean only that they
haven't phoned home, or that when they did, their families didn't notify U.S.
officials.
To narrow down the figures, officials are telephoning families to ask them
to send dental records or fingerprints to check against the remains of the
dead, many of whom are burned beyond recognition.
Meanwhile, the British rock ban Oasis canceled concerts this week in the
Philippines and Singapore because of increased security concerns over the
Bali bombing and a spate of blasts in the Philippines.
-----------------------------------
Jakarta Post [online]
October 21, 2002
Maluku separatists get two to five years imprisonment
AMBON, Maluku (JP): The Ambon District Court here on Monday sentenced 14 men
for between two and five years for raising four flags of the outlawed South
Maluku Republic in the provincial capital Ambon on April 25, Antara news
agency reported.
They are all members of the Maluku Sovereignty Front pro-independence
movement.
April 25 is the anniversary of the proclamation of the South Maluku Republic
(RMS) in 1950, a movement which was quickly quashed by the government of
then president Sukarno. Most of the activists and leaders of the group fled to
the Netherlands.
"Their actions to separate from the unitary state of the Republic of
Indonesia has caused concern among society and helped to fuel the conflict
in the Malukus," Judge Riyono said. All defendants said they would appeal.
Maluku was ravaged by three years of sectarian violence pitting Muslims
against Christians since Jan. 1999. More than 5,000 people were killed.
Intermittent violence has continued since both sides signed a
government-backed peace pact in February.
Some Muslims said the mainly Christian separatist movement helped fuel the
sectarian violence, while Christians blamed the Laskar Jihad Muslim militia.
Alex Manuputty and Samuel Waileruni, the leader and senior official of the
Maluku Sovereignty Front, are on trial in Jakarta.
The two are accused of subversion by setting up an illegal organization and
raising the banned separatist flag. They face a maximum sentence of life
imprisonment.
-------------------------------------------
Jakarta Post [online]
October 21, 2002
Laskar Jihad will leave Poso conflict area gradually
PALU, Central Sulawesi (JP): Former chairman of the Central Sulawesi branch
of the "Ahlussunah wal Jamaah" Communication Forum, which oversees the
Laskar Jihad Muslim militia group, Zabir, disclosed here on Monday that all
members
of the militia would leave the Poso conflict area by the end of next month.
"All 200 members of the militia (mainly deployed to Poso) will leave Central
Sulawesi province by the end of next month at the latest," Zabir told
Antara.
On Saturday Oct. 12, the militia's commander Jafar Umar Thalib dissolved
Laskar Jihad, saying that the militia was no longer needed as a legion.
He said the organization would alternate its activities to serve in social
and religious missions in the fields of education, health care and Islamic
propagation.
Following the dissolution, some 780 members left the Ambon conflict area in
Maluku province for their respective hometowns in Java.
Meanwhile, Zabir pointed out that some 70 members had left Poso, while the
rest would be sent back to Java gradually. "It is likely that I will be the
last to go," he said.
He said the militia members have been instructed by forum leaders in its
headquarters in Saudi Arabia to leave the conflict areas.
The Laskar Jihad members had originally been recruited voluntarily from Java
to help wage war with fellow Muslims involved in clashes against residents
of the country's predominantly Christian areas, particularly in Ambon, Maluku
and Poso, Central Sulawesi.
***
Dow Jones Newswires
October 21, 2002
Jakarta Urged To Act Against Terrorism In Return For Aid
By TOM WRIGHT
JAKARTA -- Indonesia's donors told the government last week they were
delaying a crucial meeting on fresh aid for the struggling economy to give
more time to assess the economic impact of the Bali attack.
A less-publicized reason for the delay, according to some diplomats, is that
donors - especially Australia - are unwilling to give more aid to Indonesia
unless Jakarta cracks down on terrorists. Australia lost the greatest number
of citizens in the Oct. 12 nightclub blast.
The huge loss of life in the Bali blast has steeled the resolve of foreign
governments to push Indonesia to act against terrorist organizations, even
if that means threatening to hold back crucial foreign aid, they add.
Indonesia's government, which relies on $3 billion in aid annually to prop
up its shaky finances, has until now largely ignored foreign pressure to crack
down on militant Islamic groups.
Western countries have avoided putting too much pressure on Indonesia in
public, wary that such an approach could be interpreted as foreign meddling
in the domestic affairs of the world's most populous Muslim nation. Muslim
nationalists led by figures such as Vice President Hamzah Haz have urged the
government not to bow to Western pressures to arrest suspected terrorists.
Foreign donor governments have maintained aid programs partly in hopes that
Indonesia could be coaxed toward action.
The Bali attack killed more than 180 mostly Western tourists. As a result,
some Western governments have come under domestic pressure from citizens
demanding that Jakarta be taken to task for not doing more to stamp out
terrorism. Other southeast Asian nations like Singapore, Malaysia and the
Philippines have complained for months that Indonesia hasn't been aggressive
enough with religious radicals.
Aid donors last week called off a two-day meeting scheduled to begin Oct.
28. The meeting of major donor countries led by the World Bank was supposed to
discuss how much aid to give Indonesia for the 2003 budget.
Diplomats present last week said Australian government representatives
pushed heavily for a postponement until early next year, and urged donors to tie
future aid commitments to progress in capturing and punishing those responsible
for the Bali attacks.
Stick Replacing Carrot
The World Bank, which coordinates donor commitments for Indonesia, said the
delays would provide time to assess the economic impact of the blast on
Indonesia's economy. The bank also pledged to form a rescue package for
tourism-dependent Bali.
Still, the appetite of Western governments to encourage Indonesia to act by
holding out aid as a carrot appears to be waning in favor of the stick:
threatening to withhold money, diplomats say.
To be sure, it remains unlikely that Indonesia will lose all of its aid.
Instead, the donor nations probably hope Jakarta will do something about
terrorism before this extreme scenario becomes necessary.
Indonesia has taken steps in the past week to counter threats to its
security, a move donors will likely welcome. Of course, Jakarta isn't acting
only in fear of losing aid - there are other factors at play, such as
desires for a renewal of military ties with the U.S. and fears of becoming a
pariah
state.
But the country is acutely aware of its reliance on foreign donors. The
government will need to ask for about $3 billion next year to fill its huge
budget deficit. With public debt about $130 billion, or equal to a year's
output, that aid is more necessary than ever.
Indonesia also knows it needs aid programs in place to attract back foreign
private investment. Overseas companies won't be willing to put money here
without the presence of bodies such as the World Bank. The bank and
International Monetary Fund, which runs a $5 billion program, demand
economic and judicial reforms aimed at making the country more investor friendly
in
return for aid.
With this is mind, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri moved Friday
to pass an emergency decree which gives police more power to make arrests if
suspected terrorists are involved.
Indonesian police also arrested Saturday a hardline Islamic preacher who the
U.S. and Australia suspect is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a
militant group many believe is linked to al-Qaida. The group is suspected of
having been involved in the Bali attacks.
Police arrested Abu Bakar Bashir in connection with a string of bombings in
Indonesia in 2000, not the Bali attack. The preacher, who denies the
accusations, is being held at a hospital in the Indonesian city of Solo
after fainting last week. Police say they will interrogate him when he has
regained
strength.
Indonesia has cooperated behind the scenes with the U.S. since the Sept. 11
attacks, arresting suspected foreign al-Qaida operatives operating in the
country.
But Jakarta has been reluctant to crack down on homegrown Islamic militants
such as Jemaah Islamiyah.
Partly this reflects the poor state of Indonesia's security apparatus, which
lacks the ability to track down petty criminals, let alone complex terrorist
organizations. It also shows the government has until now lacked the
political resolve necessary to arrest militant Islamic groups - and risk
stirring up anti-Western sentiment among the majority Muslim population.
That may now be a price worth paying if faced with delays to crucial foreign
aid.
-By Tom Wright, Dow Jones Newswires; 6221 3983 1277; tom.wright@dowjones.com
------------------------------------------------
BBC, Oct. 20, 2002
Analysis
Indonesia's economic prospects in the wake of the bombings in Bali
By Emma Clark
BBC News Online business reporter
Days after last week's bombing in Bali, many multinational oil, gas and
mining companies in Indonesia went onto "white alert".
The last time companies activated this initial stage of alert was after the
11 September attacks on the World Trade Center.
photo: Soldiers have been sent to guard oil facilities
Once again they were dusting off their evacuation plans, beefing up security
and dishing out emergency advice to employees.
"White alert" - the first of four stages that culminate in "red alert" and
the evacuation of all employees - has already exerted a dampening influence
on Indonesia's ex-pat communities.
In the oil town of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, ex-pats have been warned
to put aside $500 in cash and have passports at the ready.
Security guards outside office blocks, marine facilities and oil wells now
carry machine guns and check for bombs under cars.
Time to flee?
Meanwhile, wives and families are mulling advice from various foreign
offices around the world to leave the country.
Consumer confidence could be dented
In the capital Jakarta, many Australian and American families have already
shipped out, leaving schools and embassies deserted.
Those left behind are finding their work disrupted by bomb threats - the
Jakarta Stock Exchange was forced to evacuate its premises on Thursday.
The spectre of a mass exodus will no doubt deal yet another blow to
Indonesia's already fragile business confidence.
"The impact on business sentiment is potentially more serious that the
direct impact on tourism," says Andrew Steer, the World Bank's country director
for
Indonesia.
Toughing it out
To some extent, however, the world's oil, gas and mining companies are
familiar with the modus operandi in Indonesia.
Only four years ago, as ethnic riots rocked Jakarta, multinationals removed
non-essential personnel by the plane-load.
Meanwhile, the US oil giant ExxonMobil has found itself caught between the
army and separatist rebels in the northern province of Aceh, where it has
its biggest production facilities.
"Oil people are not easily frightened," says Dr Jonathan Pincus from the
School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London.
Following the Bali bombing, ExxonMobil is reviewing its security and putting
appropriate measures in place.
However, for all its trials, there is never talk of pulling out.
"We are committed to long-term investment in Indonesia," says spokeswoman
Deva Rachman.
Indonesia's status as one of Asia's most prospective oil zones remains a
powerful lure not only for ExxonMobil, but also for France's TotalfinaElf,
and America's Unocal and ChevronTexaco (Caltex).
The last straw?
But, however robust the oil companies may be, Indonesia's economy is still
very vulnerable to this latest shock.
"I do believe it's a threat to Indonesia's ongoing recovery," says the World
Bank's Mr Steer.
Everyone is watching for Megawati's response
The Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 and Indonesia's tumultuous
transformation from autocratic rule to a fledgling democracy hammered the
economy.
The World Bank has attempted to nurse the country back to health and was
recently encouraged by a "slow" recovery.
Economic growth picked up in 2000 at nearly 5%, before slowing to 3.3% in
2001.
This year the economy was forecast to expand at almost 4%, but Mr Steer says
that the Bali bombing and subsequent drop-off in tourism could knock off
about 1%.
"It's very bad news for the economy - it couldn't come at a worse time,"
adds SOAS' Dr Pincus.
"Exports are down and investment is very low."
Megawati's moment
But the real concern will be the impact on Indonesian consumers, who may
decide to keep their wallets firmly in their pockets with the threat of more
violence and general economic uncertainty.
photo: The Security Minister is keyed up to act
"The growth Indonesia enjoyed has been consumer-led and there is evidence
that was already petering out," says Mr Steer.
"You could argue that this will tip the balance."
Most agree that Indonesia's fate hinges on the resolve of its president,
Megawati Sukarnoputri, and her ability to restore confidence.
"The worst-case scenario will be if we don't see any legitimate security
response from the government," says John Green, a political analyst at the
consulting and advisory firm, Eurasia, in New York.
"In the past Megawati has been a notoriously inactive and impassive
personality."
'A very energetic spirit'
However, there are hopes that the scale of the Bali bombing, relative to
previous attacks in the country, will spur the government into action.
"Until now security was not taken seriously enough at the political level,"
says one observer in Jakarta.
"This has woken up the government and broken the opposition.
"The Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is almost delighted that no
one can deny there is a problem anymore."
The World Bank's Mr Steer is also optimistic that the new momentum will
yield economic reform.
"We are working closely with the government and we see a very positive
attitude - it is not cheerful - but the government is in a very energetic
spirit."
Certainly, while the identity of the bombers behind the Bali tragedy remains
murky, investors will be looking for maximum reassurance.
And in the many cities like Jakarta and Balikpapan, many more people will be
hoping to resume normal life again - or at least as normal as it gets in
Indonesia.
---------------------------------------------
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