Indonesia

Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 0-239 (General Information)

CHRIST-MAS, THE ONLY HOPE (Part 1)

Reflections on Indonesia, Christmas 2000

An address given at the Allan Walker College of Evangelism Sydney 2 December 2000

by Rev John Barr

Secretary for Indonesia and East Timor, Uniting Church in Australia

As we approach Christmas the situation in Indonesia today is a grave concern. Throughout the archipelago in Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, Lombok, Timor and Papua ordinary people have become the victims of political manoevreing, corruption, religious extremism and military power-play.

What's emerging is what I call a dreadful form of tyranny. Peasant farmers, urban traders, government workers, students, indigenous forest dwellers, refugees, slum dwellers, and Chinese business people have all been targeted. The tyranny I speak of is evil because it destroys the human spirit and ridicules any sense of decency, justice and peace. This tyranny is turning people against one another, pitting Christian against Muslim and Muslim against Christian, turning indigenous people against landless migrants and pro-autonomy people against those who seek independence.

Such tyranny decimates communities and destroys all forms of communal life. It's a tyranny that denigrates God and confronts everything that is holy and good. Theologians have been saying, for a long time, that the world is on a 'collision course with disaster'. This comes as no surprise. Jesus himself had some strong things to say on the matter and the words 'collision' and 'disaster' ring loud as I consider the situation in Indonesia today.

Allow me to reflect on my story over the past six months or so.

My work takes me to the islands of the Indonesian archipelago on a very frequent basis. In August this year I spent time in Kupang in West Timor where armed militia, with Indonesian army backing, still control refugee camps. Here around 100,000 East Timorese people live in very poor conditions. These people have no land yet they are too frightened to return to their homeland because they fear retribution. They are caught up in web of violence that saw two United Nations refugee workers brutally hacked to death in September.

Then about 5 weeks ago I was in Irian Jaya or the Land of Papua. Tension among indigenous Papuans is very real. I witnessed a strong military presence in the region where there are now 10,000 Indonesian troops and some 7,000 Indonesian police stationed to maintain Jakarta's unwelcome rule over this remote province. I listened to lots of stories concerning the senseless murder of many people and I was taken to the spot where three Papuan men had been recently shot in the back by security forces.

Papuan people are now preparing for further confrontation and violence. Yesterday, 1 December, was a sensitive day as some indigenous people dared to declare their independence from Jakarta. Meanwhile anger, resentment and the notion of 'pay-back' looms large in the psyche of many indigenous Melanesians. It means the violence will simply spiral.

Then early in November I flew from Papua back to Makassar and Jakarta via Ambon. From the air I could see huge areas of Ambon city had been destroyed by fire. In this city, the size of Canberra, we know that hundreds of shops, houses and institutions including hospitals and the Christian university have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of people have fled the city while armed militia groups wage war on a once peaceful community. While at the airport terminal in Ambon I was escorted by armed soldiers in what seemed to be a huge security operation that clearly indicates Ambon is a city under siege. Just this week another 50 Christians were massacred in the region.

We also know that hundreds of thousands of local people from other parts of Maluku and North Maluku have been attacked and have fled their villages. In July I visited large refugee camps in North Sulawesi that house around 30,000 Christians from Tobelo and other parts of Halmahera. We know that in Ternate there are similar numbers of Muslim refugees living in the same kind of conditions.

The stories I listened to mentioned violent incidents of a most brutal and senseless kind that targeted even young children, women and old people. There were horrific stories about the murder of small children whose bodies were dumped at sea. I spoke to a young woman who had lost her husband in an attack on her village. She was nine months pregnant and gave birth in jungle while literally on the run from Jihad militia.

Official figures indicate that around 5,000 people have been killed in the violence throughout the Maluku Islands over the past two years. Unofficial figures suggest the number killed is much, much higher.

Friends, its indeed been a challenging year for anyone who has links with Indonesia. A really disturbing dimension to all this trouble is the division and the hatred that is erupting in local communities. Just before East Timor's referendum in August 1999, the Timorese community was deeply split between pro-autonomy and pro-independence factions. This even impacted on the life and leadership of the church. Also in West Timor there is now division between local Kupang communities and East Timorese refugees.

In Kalimantan there is conflict between Dayak people and immigrants from the island of Madura. Some Dayaks have tragically reverted back to ancient pagan headhunting practices as they attacked Javanese newcomers, severed their heads and paraded their 'trophies' through the town. In the Baliem Valley of Papua violence has seen local Dani people shot and many immigrants from other parts of Indonesia driven out of the area.

In Ambon and Halmahera together with other locations including Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Lombok and Java, communal conflict has taken on a tragic religious dimension. Christians and Muslims have been, and continue to be, engaged in serious sectarian violence. Thousands of people have been slaughtered, churches and mosques have been burnt, and communities have been blown apart.

It is at the point of religious sectarianism and religious violence that Indonesia's tyranny appears to be at its worst. Much of the violence, hatred and division is centered on the terrible tension that has developed between Christian and Muslim.

Its true to say that Indonesia is a nation of immense cultural, ethnic and religious difference. Normally, this difference is valued and respected. I lived in Kupang, West Timor from 1985 to 1990 with my wife and children. In my kampung our neighbours at our rear were Balinese Hindus while our neighbours to our right were Minahasan Pentecostals. Our neighbours to our front on one side were Javanese Muslims and our neighbours to our front on the other side were Maluku Catholics. Our neighbours to our left were Timorese Protestants. Then, of course, all our neighbours had interesting neighbours themselves in the form of an Australian family with an Anglo-Celtic cultural identity and a Methodist, now Uniting Church, heritage.

Our kampung was a safe, tolerant, courteous community. We respected, valued and sometimes even laughed at our differences. At the conclusion of the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan and during the celebration of Idul Fitri we would visit our Muslim friends and bring them greetings. At Christmas our Muslim friends would visit us and bring their greetings.

But this situation has now tragically changed. I find it quite disturbing to know that the courtesy and trust I experienced in Kupang has broken down in many places. Religious identity has become a focus of the tension and a source of the conflict. It has even become the focus and the source of communal hatred. For example, in the Maluku Islands the colour of headbands worn by young men (red if you are Christian or a white if you are Muslim) determines one's fate. Children taunt one another about their religion. Young men form armed militias in the name of God and go on crusades to 'cleanse' their respective communities. A system of 'religious apartheid' now operates as separate Christian and Muslim enclaves develop.

As I try to understand what is really going on in Indonesia, it appears to me that religious traditions and religious identities are being deliberately targeted and manipulated. Religious faith and religious passions are being subverted by those who come with an agenda to create havoc and destroy the good things of life.

Christians and Muslims are therefore being set up, as local Christian and Muslim communities are pitted against one another and are being forced into a spiral of violence and hatred. I believe this tyranny is being orchestrated by the Indonesian military together with extremist Islamic forces. Their purpose is to create chaos and, out of the chaos, to assert their own form of sinister power and control.

The Indonesian military are largely a force seemingly answerable to no-one except themselves. Leading generals have been involved in business enterprises that include logging, minerals, oil, transportation and manufacturing. These business interests have funded military activities independent of the state. One could argue that aspects of the Indonesian military really seem to function like independent agents doing their own thing. The military sit uncomfortably with the democratically elected President of the Republic of Indonesia, Abdurraham Wahid while the disgraced former president of the Republic, General Suharto, still exercises considerable influence through his military connections.

[Please read on in CLM-0-240]