Once the pressure on Megawati fades, will it again be business as usual?
Will the Bali attacks galvanize president Megawati Sukarnoputri into finally taking enduring action against the extremists in our midst who are giving Islam such a bad name? I doubt it.
I was in Bali that deadly night of Oct. 12, giving a presentation at the Indonesian Institute of Art, about 3 kilometers from Kuta, on the political and social conditions that breed Islamic radicalism in Indonesia. Suddenly we heard an explosion. I shouted that it must be a bomb. But many in my audience just smiled. They figured: this is Bali, paradise, safe, where violence doesn't—cannot—exist. But a minute later, my friend's cell phone beeped, messaging that blasts had occurred in three different places consecutively in Kuta.
When Megawati visited Bali the next day, I fervently hoped that she would convey, both to the Indonesian people and to the international community, not merely platitudinous statements of condemnation and condolence, but a clear and strong message on how she and her government intend to tackle terrorism in Indonesia. Instead, she just inspected the site of the bombing and spoke in general terms about how terrorism violates the fundamental values of all religions. She might as well have said nothing.
Within the administration and among Indonesia's Muslim leaders, denial has conspicuously prevailed ever since 9/11. Denial of any possible link between local militants and al-Qaeda, coupled with the routine rhetoric that the "infidel" world has conspired to tarnish Islam's image. The cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir, who has been accused of having links with al-Qaeda, quickly put the blame for the Bali bombs on the CIA, so, went his logic, that the U.S. could force Megawati to crack down on Islamic groups like his own.
A big obstacle in the way of the fight against terrorism in Indonesia is that you will be branded anti-Islam if you take it on. Aside from her notorious indecisiveness, Megawati is trapped in this net, and she does not possess the courage to stand up to the fanatical demagogues. Vice President Hamzah Haz is even worse. He has openly backed radicals like Abubakar not, in my opinion, out of shared beliefs but out of a cynical realization that he and his political party need the support of Islamic groups if they are to make further gains in power.
One way or another, the Islamic card has long been played in Indonesia. Now that Suharto and his authoritarian, Islam-suppressing New Order regime are gone, Islamic groups can surface and spread. Only they are no longer abused, but used by politicians and other opportunists—even though they espouse militant jihad and the establishment of a theocracy that goes against the country's very constitution. While these radicals make up only a tiny minority of the Muslim population, their views have been given a boost since 9/11 because of the development of the seemingly unbridgeable gap between Islam and the West. Abubakar is a petty character, but, for some, he's now a hero battling Western hegemony.
Megawati should make the courageous decision to discard the Islamic card. The first step is simple: all she has to do is state unequivocally and straightforwardly that she fully supports the cause of moderate Islam, and that extremists are a serious threat to the future of democracy and plurality in Indonesia. It is not enough to enact laws giving the authorities sweeping powers of detention. It is not enough to just ferret out the Bali culprits. Megawati needs to understand the root causes of Islamic militancy and how the doctrine of jihad is exploited to justify attacks on so-called infidels, and then devise a strategy to curb radicalism. What's required is a clear conviction and vision of the tolerant and progressive society Indonesia has the potential to be. Without this, I fear that any steps Megawati takes are merely in response to international pressure. Once that pressure fades, she and her government will return to business as usual, and radicalism will continue to fester.
So my plea to Megawati is this: for the sake of Indonesia and its place in the international community, break your silence. You are long overdue to wake up.
Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, one of Indonesia's leading young Muslim scholars, is head of the Liberal Islam Network
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