INDONESIA

Condition of Our Shared Life:
The May Tragedy in Indonesia

I. Sandyawan Sumardi, SJ

(Ed. note: Father Sandyawan, secretary of Team of Volunteers for Humanitarian Causes, was among the first persons to expose the organised attacks on ethnic Chinese women in Indonesia during the May 1998 riots. Below is what he told of the tragedy in his country at a hearing of the U.S. Congress on 28 July 1998.)

I have come here on behalf of "Tim Relawan untuk Kemanusiaan," the Indonesian name for the "Team of Volunteers for Humanitarian Causes." The Team was formed in the aftermath of the urban riots in Jakarta, Indonesia, following the attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party on 27 July 1996. As repeatedly happened in the history of Indonesia in the past 30 years, it was the ordinary people who bore the burden: 5 dead, 149 injured, 136 arrested and 23 missing. The concern of the Team was to help the victims among these ordinary people.

Since the incident in mid-July 1996, political events in Indonesia have been enfolding in a chaotic way, almost all marred by unnecessary violence and bloodshed. The political system has gone bankrupt, and the severe monetary and economic turmoil which started in July 1997 has intensified the magnitude of the crisis. Again, it is the ordinary people who have to bear the suffering. Gone is politics as a noble vocation, for it has simply become a barbaric venture. The word "barbaric" is to be understood literally, that is, hundreds or thousands disappear or die from organised violence. One of the horrors in a long series of such barbaric politics is what happened in May 1998.

Due to time constraints, I would like to speak only about the tragic event that happened in mid-May 1998. I am speaking about this particular event because, in terms of magnitude and methods of violence, it has become like the most dramatic manifestation of politics as practised by the elite in Indonesia. We are not concerned here about politics as such, but about the consequences of these barbaric politics on the future of Indonesia. At your invitation, we have come here to make an appeal for your solidarity with and for the victims of the tragedy.

The Horror

The May 1998 tragedy was preceded by the shooting-to-death of four university students on the occasion of student demonstrations at the University of Trisakti in Jakarta on 12 May. On that day the political temperature rose suddenly, and sporadic violence began to show its face. In the morning of 14 May, a series of violent incidents started to break out, and by mid-day the city of Jakarta and its surroundings were on fire. Thousands of commercial buildings, business offices, supermarkets, residential houses, public utilities, buses and private cars were burnt down or simply ramshackle on the streets.

Amidst the riots, widespread looting and torture took place in an incomprehensible manner. By 9 June, the Team of Volunteers for Humanitarian Causes had catalogued 2,244 dead bodies (mostly burnt), 91 injured and 31 people missing. Again, most of the victims were ordinary people. The casualties, however, are only part of the story. It was soon discovered that the horror also involved a series of gang-rapes on Chinese women. As of 3 July, we found 152 women being gang-raped, of whom 20 are dead. The following is a random example of how these gang-rapes were perpetrated:

"A group of unknown persons were looting the victims’ house. By threatening to burn down the house, some of them forced the victim’s son to rape his younger sister. They also coerced the male house-maid to rape the mother of the family. The gang-rapes were then continued by the group and other unknown persons. The victims’ house was burnt down, the siblings were thrown into the burning fire and the mother threw herself into the fire." (As told confidentially by an eyewitness; the gang-rapes occurred in Jakarta on 13 May.)

The Pattern

Being shocked, we may ponder: who have planned such barbaric acts on such a massive scale? We may suspect that they are spontaneous acts by the mobs, the crowd of ordinary people. The answer is "no." From our on-going investigations, we began to see clearly that the May tragedy involved a highly systematic and organised plan and its execution. It was not a "coincidence," for the coincidence-factor simply cannot explain (a) the scale and (b) simultaneity (simulacrum) of the tragedy in an area as vast as Jakarta and its surroundings, (c) the similarity of their modus operandi and (d) the systematic selection of targets in the case of gang-rapes on Chinese women. With regard to the similarity of modus operandi, we have uncovered the following pattern:

First, the looting and burning were not initiated by people from the neighbourhood, but by groups of strangers not known by the local people. These strangers were transported in a bus or truck coming from unknown places. They were the party which incited, provoked and encouraged the local people to do the looting. Secondly, the leaders of the looting/burning and the perpetrators of gang-rapes were seen by eyewitnesses and local people as muscular persons, wearing military boots, having the appearance of goons and hit men. Thirdly, this group of unknown persons disappeared while the buildings were on fire and while adults and children from the neighbourhood were helplessly trapped inside.

Indeed, our investigations show that the May tragedy is inseparable from the power struggle which intensified in the days prior to the outbreak of the riots. And this is a recurring pattern in the elite politics in Indonesia in the last 30 years. The similar pattern, modus operandi and their consequences also happened in the riots in Surabaya, Solo, Palembang and Medan. They also happened in Aceh, Irian Jaya, East Timor, Banjarmasin, Tasikmalaya, Situbondo as well as in the 27 July 1996 incident. The past was soaked in violence and blood. The present is simply another space and time for the similar blood-spilling politics. If we do not break this recurring pattern, the future will never become the realm of civilisation.

The Cover-up

It is indeed an arduous task to pinpoint the roots of such organised violence. But we observe the same symptoms. It is the poor and ordinary people who suffer the consequences. The May 1998 tragedy shows the old habit of how elite politics was being exercised in Indonesia.

First, the Indonesian government and the old guard in the military show a lukewarm attitude even in admitting that systematic and organised acts of looting, burning and gang-raping have been committed. Among their official ranks, there is a tendency to cover up the fact of the May tragedy. They repeatedly say that what happened were spontaneous acts by the crowd, or they simply keep quiet as if nothing has really happened. Another political move being made by the official ranks is to make the tragedy appear as a natural disaster, comparable with an earthquake or a hurricane. Behind such a move is an agenda, or rather a non-agenda, that "nothing can be done." As repeatedly done in the past, a deliberate amnesia is again being injected into public life. It is a betrayal of history, a denial of collective memory.

Secondly, there is a blatant move by the official ranks to divert the case to look like a racial conflict. Based on our on-going investigations, we assure you that it was not a racial conflict. The "racial-conflict claim" can never explain why the organised gangs burned down buildings in which thousands of non-Chinese adults and children were helplessly trapped. Racial differences are not the main problem. They are a solution repeatedly employed by the government every time its power is under threat, or a method repeatedly used by some power contenders in their attempt to capture political power.

Thirdly, the old method of "scapegoating" is currently being employed again. The official ranks have a tendency for making it appear that the perpetrators of the May tragedy are the urban poor. Since most of the victims are also the urban poor, the case is made so that it appears that it was the urban poor who killed the urban poor. In the language of Indonesian politics, it is the same as saying that "nothing can be done." No wonder that there is an increasing moral outrage among the urban poor towards political authority.

Fourthly, with regard to the case of gang-rapes, there is a move from some quarters within the official ranks to separate the acts of raping from the organised riots, looting and burning. The purpose of such a move is clear, that is, to strip off gang-rapes from their political sting (connection). By so doing the gang-rapes will look like ordinary "criminal" acts rather than part of an organised "political" move.

Fifthly, gang-rapes, by using similar modus operandi, continue to happen until mid-July. It is clear that the continuing gang-rapes have become part of terrorism currently being waged against the wider population and humanitarian activists. Members of the Team of Volunteers for Humanitarian Causes have received various forms of terror and threat from unknown sources, from death threats to abduction. This alone gives an undeniable proof that democracy has never been seriously given a chance to surface in Indonesia. The irony is that, instead of receiving moral support, our humanitarian Team has become the accused. We are constantly blackmailed and accused of defending the interests of the ethnic Chinese, without the accusers admitting that we also are helping the non-Chinese victims.

The Urgency

The above pattern of how the authority responded to the May 1998 tragedy shows that there is something rotten at the heart of politics as exercised by the elite in Indonesia. We are strongly convinced that this problem also reinforces the depth and magnitude of the current economic crisis. Take a simple premise that good investment is part of economic recovery. The volatility of the current situation and the trauma from the May 1998 tragedy scare away even domestic investors, let alone foreign investors. What they are demanding is not only a guarantee for future business activity, but some concrete measures to unearth the facts of the May tragedy, particularly the network and perpetrators of the organised looting, burning, killings and gang-rapes. The impact of the tragedy on the managerial aspects of the economy can easily be seen.

We, however, are mainly concerned with the humanitarian side of the tragedy. For an increasing number of people in Indonesian society, the May 1998 tragedy has shocked the deepest realm of their conscience. Ordinary people were burnt, children were trapped in many burning buildings, Chinese women were brutally gang-raped and mutilated, all these terrible acts were carried out in an organised way, with the use of a syndicate of hit men, goons and gangsters. There no longer seems to be a distinction between what is "barbaric" and what is "civilised" in public life. The May 1998 tragedy reinforces the blurring of the two. Our children and the future generations inherit this ethical confusion, and we should not be surprised if both our private and public life as well as our economy and politics in the future will be devoid of ethics and virtues.

By coming here, we may be accused of selling out our nation. Such an accusation is an Indonesian political habit of inventing a "whipping boy." We have the courage to come here, as we believe that what is at risk is the future of our shared humanity, the future of our shared civilisation. In the last analysis, the fate of Indonesian children helplessly trapped in a burning building is the same as the fate of American, Egyptian or Nigerian children helplessly trapped in a burning building. The sorrow and anguish of an Indonesian-Chinese woman being gang-raped is as deep as the sorrow and anguish of an American, Turkish or Indonesian-Javanese woman being gang-raped.

We have the courage to tell this story to the international community with a clear message that we are all facing the eclipse of civility and a shared life. We have come here not to do the begging. As Indonesians standing on a par with Iranians or Americans, we simply have one request, that is, your solidarity with and for the victims of the May 1998 tragedy. However, being united by the same yearning for truth, we make an appeal to you to do whatever you can to support the humanitarian struggle we are undertaking in Indonesia. To be more specific, there are two agendas that may help to unravel the problem.

First, there is an urgent need to unearth the facts of the May 1998 tragedy. No crime against humanity happens without the criminals against humans. To unearth the facts of the May 1998 tragedy is to uncover what we have called the network of an organised plan and its execution as well as the planners and perpetrators of the tragedy. This seems to be the key to reviving the ethics of social life, of politics, of economy, or even one of the keys to economic recovery. The reluctance on the part of the Indonesian authorities to carry out such agenda is usually expressed in the rhetoric of "due process," while the legal system in Indonesia has for long been known as the "dark road to justice." Only concerted efforts among various groups within the Indonesian "civil society" and international support to such efforts can gradually unravel the puzzle.

Secondly, we have to say clearly that the authoritarian arrangement of the past and the present State in Indonesia has been part of the roots of the problem. Within such an authoritarian arrangement is the deep-seated power of the Indonesian military, from the palace politics and economy to the structure of village life. It is no secret that dominant groups within the military have always been involved in all political proceedings in Indonesia. There is a big irony behind the May 1998 tragedy. For many decades the Indonesian military intelligence have been very stern in conducting surveillance on all aspects of social life: from workers’ gatherings to the contents of newspapers, from geographical movement of street children to the schedule of student discussions. It is indeed impossible that the military intelligence with such a vast experience was unaware of the network of organised riots and gang-rapes as colossal as the May 1998 tragedy. Or should it be said that the dominant groups within the Indonesian military may have given a tacit blessing or were even involved in the tragedy? There is an urgency to answer such a puzzle. In addition, this may also be an appropriate time for the governments like the U.S. government to re-assess the impacts of its military linkages, if there is any, with some dominant groups within the Indonesian military. Such links may take the form of special training of military personnel and armoury support.

Above all, we make an appeal to you to give whatever support you have for our humanitarian struggle in Indonesia. For so many decades we have lived under constant fear and blatant violations of human rights. The May 1998 tragedy is simply the latest manifestation of the recurring pattern of State violence and blood-shedding politics in Indonesia. For humanitarian reasons, we make an appeal to your solidarity to support the struggle to break this chain of violence. If we do not make a concerted effort to stop it, the future may never become the realm of civilisation.

(Source: SiaR News Service)