(The spectre of Laden’s Al-Qaeda seems to have got a fresh lease of life following the October 13 bomb blast in Bali, Indonesia. For Bush, Blair and their friend from Australia, John Howard, the Bali blasts have meant not only more fuel for the continuing “war on terror” but also a great new opportunity to reclaim Indonesia. But despite their cynical attempts to manipulate the Bali tragedy to serve their belligerent ends, the warmongers are up against the inexorable law of diminishing returns and a growing worldwide quest for peace. Sundaram takes a close look at the Bali aftermath. --Ed.)
Confusion prevails in all quarters regarding the true motives and identity of culprits behind the horrific bomb blasts on the Indonesian island of Bali mid-October that has killed over 180 people and injured several hundred more.
While Western governments and their media have been quick to accuse the ‘usual suspects’ such as Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the south-east Asia based Jamiyaah Islamiyah (JI) there is as yet no real evidence to show that they were behind the massacre. True, given the fact that most of the victims of the blasts were Western citizens and the sophistication of the car bomb device used point to an organised group the fact is that all talk of ‘Islamic militants’ as the culprits is still in the purely conjectural stage.
It is important to point this out primarily because in Indonesia nothing is really what it seems on the surface. Ruled for several decades by the brutal dictatorship of General Suharto the country’s ruling class has a long history of manipulating so-called Islamic radicals for carrying out a variety of subversion and even massacres of innocent citizens to achieve its political aims.
Who can forget the fact that the Suharto regime’s ascent to power in the mid sixties was accompanied by the genocide of nearly a million ‘communists’ – many of them killed by mobs of so called Islamic radicals incited and paid for by the Indonesian military and the CIA. Since then the Suharto regime, till its overthrow a few years ago, used the Islamic fundamentalists to keep left-wing and other socially progressive forces down through the use of pseudo-religious propaganda and very often brutal violence.
Since the departure of Suharto following a popular uprising led by students and workers demanding democracy there has been a flowering of new democratic institutions, legislation and movements in the country. But the rapid growth of democratic forces has alarmed sections of conservative politicians, the military and the police who yearn to return to the days of the Suharto-style dictatorship. The Indonesian elite, following the separation of East Timor, has also become paranoid about the country breaking up and increasingly endorsed the use of state violence against ethnic minority groups demanding independence or autonomy particularly in West Papua and Aceh provinces.
In recent years if there has been any force in Indonesia that can really be called terrorist it is the Indonesian military itself. Human rights groups, both within and outside Indonesia, have recorded dozens of cases where military personnel have been involved in acts of terrorist subversion against progressive movements, civil society groups and even normal citizens whom they want to scare into supporting a dictatorship once again.
While it is still too early to talk about a possible role of the Indonesian military in the Bali blasts there have been some preliminary reports of a Indonesian naval officer confessing to have supplied the C-4 explosives use to make the car bomb device. The officer could very well be a lone ‘rogue element’ within the military sympathetic to foreign or local terrorist groups or helping with the attack on orders from the bosses in the armed forces.
What is very worrying now is the way the Indonesian government of Megawati Sukarnoputri has seized on the Bali blast to issue an ‘anti-terror’ decree that allows for arrest and detention without trial of any ‘terrorist’ suspect. This is a serious reversal of the hard won democratic rights possible due to the popular anti-Suharto upsurge of the late nineties and inevitably the draconian laws will be used against students, workers and all those challenging the deep economic inequalities of Indonesia.
Very cynically Western powers like the United States and Australia have used the Bali massacre to justify closer ‘cooperation’ with the Indonesian military. Following the turmoil and violence perpetrated by the Indonesian military prior to the separation of East Timor the West had cut off ties with the Indonesian armed forces.
However now – despite the very real possibility that the Indonesian military may have been behind the Bali blasts – the US and Australia are trying to get back to the days when Suharto and his goons in uniform were their closest allies in south-east Asia. If such restoration of military ties happens it will only serve to show that even the death of their own citizens will not deter western imperialists from sleeping with the devil – if that serves their strategic economic and political goals.