Global IssuesPOLITICS-INDONESIA: After July Bombings, Life Goes On (Almost)
Dian Sabri likes to do a little test on the security guards whenever she goes to malls, hotels or office buildings. If she dresses up and acts busy, or if she brings along her toddler, she can avoid being frisked, said the freelance writer.
It seems to be business as usual in the nation’s capital.
'Most of the time the guards are just chatting with each other and randomly checking visitors’ bags. They are strict only in prominent places,' she observed. 'This worries me a bit. We should increase security in view of last month’s bomb blast.'
Two luxury hotels in Jakarta were hit by bombs in July, killing nine people, including two suspected suicide bombers. At least 50 were also wounded in the nearly simultaneous explosions at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels.
The blasts revived the hunt for the country’s most wanted militant fugitive, Noordin Muhammad Top, who has been blamed for the attacks on the two hotels and a major suspect in a string of terrorist activities in the country. Early this month, police raided the suspected safe house of the Malaysian-born militant in Temanggung -- 80 km from Semarang, capital of Central Java -- and killed a man that turned out to be Ibrohim Muharram, a florist at the Marriott hotel who had smuggled in the explosives used in the bombings.
The 18-hour raid was broadcast live by two television stations, giving off the impression that the country was waging some kind of war. For many Indonesians, however, safety and security are always a concern, but life must go on somehow, they said.
'Perhaps the comparison is too extreme, but compared to Afghanistan, Iraq, or India and Pakistan, Indonesia is still pretty much safer. I can still drive by myself at night, or wear a short skirt without having to worry about being harassed or sent to jail. Even my expatriate friends here seem relaxed and see no need to flee this country,' said Mellyana Frederika, a United Nations officer in Jakarta.
She said the international agency has intensified security measures for its staff. This and sightings of 'red zones,' which are under tight security supervision, give her a pervasive sense of paranoia. 'But then again, being paranoid doesn’t solve anything. We just have to be more cautious,' she said. 'Besides, death can happen anywhere.'
A number of neighbourhoods -- in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia, including provinces -- have devised their own security measures, such as distributing pamphlets urging increased vigilance toward strangers, and collecting money to recruit more security guards. 'I’m now making more efforts to be closer to the neighbours, to find out who they are. But that’s also because they are the closest ones to get help from [in case something happens],' said Benny Zuniar, a resident of Bandung, West Java, located some 180 km southeast of Jakarta.
The sentiment among some people, however, is one of concern, not of fear. This became evident in the launch of an online campaign called #indonesiaunite on the microblogging site Twitter on the same day the two Indonesia hotels suffered powerful blasts. Its slogan, 'We Are Not Afraid,' seeks to convey the message that Indonesians are not intimidated by terrorism and that the country is still a safe place to live and invest.
Some lauded the movement as an effective way to boost patriotism and nationalism; others criticized it as undermining an otherwise serious concern. 'The feeling that you’re safe is rare in the capital, even without bombing taking place,' Aribowo Sangkoyo, who works as a copywriter in an advertisement agency, told IPS. 'You are constantly worried that you will get mugged or robbed on the street.'
Dian Noeh Abubakar, a public relations executive, longs for a return of former President Suharto's regime, when so-called ‘mysterious shooters’ were ordered to shoot criminals like thugs, thieves and robbers on the street. The Anti-Subversion Law was often invoked under the strongman’s watch to apprehend people suspected of involvement in terrorism. 'I favour that (approach),' she said.
Media reports said police and military officials have called for increased military involvement in the fight against terrorism. But this was slammed by human rights activists, saying it could spawn arbitrary arrests and detention.
It does not help that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also been criticized for sending mixed signals about the latest terrorist attacks against Indonesia. During a press conference that immediately followed the twin bombings, he spoke of attempts to destabilise the country, including a plot to kill him, and ordered an immediate investigation of the deadly twin hotel bombings. Yet, in his opening remarks at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific held in early August in Bali, he said the country remained safe.
'I guarantee that the recent attack in Jakarta would not change the fact that Indonesia is a stable, peaceful democracy that offers freedom, pluralism and tolerance,' Yudhoyono was quoted as saying in a report by ‘The Jakarta Post’. He went on to say that the police and other security officers would continue to work to ensure the country’s safety.
Political analyst Sunny Tanuwidjaja of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies said President Yudhoyono has managed to create stability and security in the past four years. 'The response of police, military and intelligence officers during the previous bombings was more aggressive. They even got the religious community to be involved in the fight against terrorism,' he said. Yet, after a four-year period of relative calm, the current administration seems to have been lulled into complacency, he said.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service