Days after the arrest in Surabaya of Ja'far Umar Thalib, the
commander of the militant Islamic group Laskar Jihad, it is not
surprising that skepticism is being voiced by the public over the
effectiveness of the measure. As was reported, police arrested
Ja'far on Saturday on his arrival in Surabaya from Makasar on
charges of inciting violence after mass prayers in Ambon two days
earlier. Police authorities, explaining the arrest to the media on
Sunday, read out portions allegedly taken from Ja'far's lecture on
the occasion to prove the Laskar Jihad commander's guilt.
Observers, however, have questioned the effectiveness of the
measure. Thamrin Amal Tomagola, for example, a sociologist and
lecturer at the University of Indonesia who has made himself a
name in the past few years as a knowledgeable observer of the
Maluku conflagration, said the authorities should not stop at
Ja'far's arrest but take other measures as well, including
investigating other parties who are known or suspected of keeping
the discord alive.
"The authorities have to enforce the law
consistently," he said, referring to the points of a peace
agreement agreed upon in Malino, South Sulawesi, in February by
the main parties in the three-year-old conflict. According to
Thamrin, those suspects include not only Laskar Jihad, but also
other parties embroiled in the incidents before and after the
Malino agreement and the South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist
movement.
Although it has been said many times before, it still may do
some good to say it again: The most important key to opening the
doorway toward peace in Maluku is effective law enforcement. By
bringing together religious and community leaders of the parties
in the conflict, Malino II, as the agreement is known -- Malino I
refers to a similar deal for Poso on the island of Sulawesi -- has
in fact effectively laid the groundwork for peace by reopening the
channels of communication among the parties in the conflict in
Maluku.
In Malino, the leaders expressed what the population of Maluku
have felt for a long time: They are sick and tired of three years
of violence and killings that has brought them nothing but misery.
The people want peace brought back into their lives. But to bring
back peace to this once idyllic island paradise, the law --
specifically the points agreed upon in Malino -- must be strictly
upheld.
This has not consistently been done and so a golden opportunity
to seize the momentum has been lost, for, surely, there can be no
doubt that the longing for peace is alive and well among the
grassroots population. If there is any doubt about this, one only
has to recall the spontaneous peace parades in which the people of
Ambon marched shoulder-to-shoulder in complete harmony through the
streets, irrespective of race, ethnicity or religion. Neither were
the people provoked into reacting with violence when a bomb blast
ripped through a crowd near a shopping mall, killing and wounding
several, or when the governor's office was burned down.
It is in this context certainly worth noting that the people of
Ambon continued to demonstrate this kind of restraint in the wake
of the Soya killings last week, by far the most tragic incident
after the Malino II agreement that could easily have turned the
clock back and rekindled the conflagration in Maluku.
As the situation stands at present, both Alex Manuputty, leader
of the proindependence Maluku Sovereignty Forum (FKM), and Ja'far
Umar Thalib, the commander of the militant Laskar Jihad, are in
police detention. Ordinarily, this should satisfy, at least in
part, those who are clamoring for action from the authorities.
However, there are many who do not see this as being done in the
context of consistent law enforcement in Maluku. On the contrary,
it has tended to strengthen the suspicion that other dirty hands
-- hands of people who are not really party to the conflict -- may
be meddling to take advantage of the conflict for motives of their
own. No need to say, this is a damaging assumption that the
authorities would do well to dispel quickly.
Be that as it may, it should be clear that declaring martial
law is not the answer to the problem of Maluku. On the contrary,
it would only confound an already complicated situation. The only
answer is better law enforcement. Although one can understand the
difficulties that stand in the way in a country where lawfulness
cannot be fully assured even on the national plane, it is a step
that must be taken unless the government wants to see the violence
and killing go on forever in the islands.