_________________________________________________________________
Monday, 14 October 1996
_________________________________________________________________
Jakarta, Kompas
The General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU) Abdurrachman Wahid (Gus Dur) clarified that taking into consideration that the actors of the riots in Situbondo were in general NU members, it became automatically the moral responsibility of the NU leadership at a national scale including the PBNU General Chairman. Thus his press release received by Kompas, Sunday (13/10) concerning the Situbondo incident of last Thursday.
The PBNU General Chairman apologized to the government and the society for the suffered losses and expressed his deepest sympathy for the fallen victims.
"To God only do I ask forgiveness for those who did it without knowing the serious consequences for the society, the people and the state," said Gus Dur.
He said that the deepest causes of the incident has to be sought and admitted that the one sided action was due to the vague orientation in guiding the Moslems.
Moslem leaders, either at local or national level have in general still a suspicious attitude towards other religions with the result that they want to win alone and take the law in their own hands as happened in the Situbondo incident.
Gus Dur appealed to all parties to perform introspection of themselves critically to realize Minister Moerdiono's wish, namely that religious and social leaders can avoid such occurrences in the future.
There were infiltrants
Meanwhile an observer of socio political problems, Dr Amir Santoso stated that the Situbondo riots were intentionally and systematically fanned by certain parties as it formed a continuation of other incidents with almost the same motive.
"The contrivance is too obvious. It was infiltrated by a third party," Amir stated when yesterday contacted by Kompas.
According to Amir the majority of Situbondo inhabitants are Madurese. The characteristic of Madurese who lost control was not like that.
He was convinced that non Madurese had infiltrated and directed the masses to take non Moslems as target. "Usually, if Moslems become angry to Moslems, Moslems will become the target," said Amir.
Amir continued that as proof the riots quickly spread until Jember with non Moslems as target. A similar case had happened in Surabaya before the Situbondo riots exploded.
It has also similarities with the 27 July 1996 affair because the actual target is destroying good relations among the members of religious communities and government credibility.(*)
Back to articles