From: John MacDougall Subject: IN: ECONOMIST - Signs of Danger To: apakabar@clark.net (John MacDougall) Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 21:46:37 -0500 (EST) Signs of danger The Economist 4 January 1997 "A complex society", noted President Suharto of Indonesia on December 31st, "can be vulnerable to unrest if not handled carefully." The president's statement of the obvious followed fresh evidence of just how vulnerable his country remains to outbreaks of mob violence. On December 26th, thousands of Muslims rampaged through the town of Tasikmalaya, in the west of Indonesia's most populous island, Java. In their wake they left four people dead, eight injured and a trail of smouldering destructions: 89 shops, 13 churches, 12 police stations, six banks, four factories, four schools, three hotels and a Hindu temple were damaged. As so often in Indonesia, the violence had been provoked by a perceived slight against Islam, the religion of four- fifths of Indonesia's nearly 200m people. A teacher and two students from a Muslim boarding school were reported to have been beaten up at a police station, where an officer was questioning them about a punishment accorded to his son. The crowd's anger was directed not just at the police, but at Christians, and at ethnic Chinese, who form a tiny minority of Indonesia's people but who nevertheless dominate [sic] its commercial life. In October, five Christians were burnt to death in another riot, in the town of Situbondo in east Java. There, 25 churches and a temple were attacked by a crowd enraged at what was seen as the lenient treatment afforded a Muslim heretic on trial for blasphemy. Some Indonesian officials have suggested that the riots were fomented by "formless organisations", a euphemism for the outlawed Communist Party. This seems improbable. Still, communists sometimes serve as useful scapegoats. More than 500,000 Indonesians are estimated to have died in a purge of suspected leftists after President Suharto's rise to power in 1965. Memories of that bloodletting may help to explain the alarm caused by the recent events in Java. There is also concern that elections to be held in May may provoke further unrest. Last July, the capital, Jakarta, saw the worst rioting for 20 years, after the government's involvement in the removal of Megawati Sukarnoputri from the leadership of an opposition party. Miss Megawati is the daughter of Sukarno, one of the founders of Indonesia and its first president. She and her followers have been barred from contesting the elections. Many Indonesians blame the increase in violence less on religious and ethnic tensions than on the perceived unfairness of the political system, and on the resentment felt by those left behind as Indonesia's economy has surged. In some places, both Chineseness and Christianity are seen as symbols of wealth. In his speech this week, President Suharto said that the unrest had some political, social and economic roots. He had already acknowledged the problems by urging rich Indonesians to give 2% of their incomes to a fund for the poor. Last month the president threatened that the houses of those who failed to stump up might be marked with flags. Shaming the rich, coupled with the president's personal authority, might help keep the fund topped up, but such charity will do little in itself to meet what Mr Suharto called the "new hopes and aspirations" that the economic development of Indonesia has created. http://www.economist.com ----- End Included Message -----