Looking for a Miracle

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It's past midnight but Jalan Kramat V, a tiny, tree-lined street in central Jakarta, is packed with hundreds of anxious, expectant visitors. Vendors are selling fried rice and chicken satay from carts. A few people talk on their mobile phones. Suddenly one woman points toward a smoky cloud and cries, "There he is!"

Everyone's attention turns to a tiny two-storied house where a few weeks ago a black watermark, allegedly resembling the head of Jesus, appeared. Local Christians hailed the apparition as a miracle. Since then, the image has reportedly moved down the street, hovered above another home and settled, finally, on a church. Thousands of faithful have now made the pilgrimage, some from as far away as West Java 100 miles to the west, in the hope of witnessing Christ's likeness. "I haven't been able to see it yet," says housewife Sofi Tambunan. "But I know it's real."

While the existence of the image is in dispute, its symbolism for many Christians in this predominantly Muslim country is not. "The image appeared because He is here to protect us," says Father Ronald Huliselan from the nearby Gideon Church. Indeed, violence against Indonesia's 20 million Catholics and Protestants is real. The Jakarta Christian Communication Forum has documented 175 churches destroyed since President Abdurrahman Wahid took office in October 1999. In the Maluku Islands, after more than two years of fighting between Christians and Muslims that has left over 4,000 of both faiths dead, church officials are claiming that hundreds of Christians were forcibly converted to Islam and circumcised.

President Wahid, a moderate Muslim intellectual, has condemned the coerced conversions. But the reports have sent shudders through many in a community still reeling from Christmas Eve bombings that targeted churches and clergymen in eight cities, killing 19 people. "There has never been this kind of fervor and fanaticism among Christians," says Father Franz Magnis-Suseno of Driyakara University, of the zealous response to the apparition. "They are focusing on interior religious life because the outside world is so dangerous." Yet, at a time of increasing terrorist activity, political uncertainty and economic malaise, the country's Catholics and Protestants are not alone in their yearning for a protector.

For his own survival, President Wahid might take heed of the latest omen. Superstitious Indonesians remember that prior to a Jan, 1999 outbreak of sectarian extremism in Ambon, the capital of Maluku, the image of Christ is also rumored to have appeared. Gus Dur, as the president is known, is certainly entering his most difficult period in office. Efforts to end the violence in Maluku and in separatist-minded Aceh province are stalled. Despite the arrest of 10 suspects, few believe the masterminds behind the Christmas Eve carnage, or any of last year's 18 bombings and grenade attacks, will ever be discovered, much less prosecuted. In the House of Representatives this week, a special committee is set to release the results of its investigation into the President's role in two financial scandals, setting the stage for possible impeachment proceedings. "Gus Dur should be able to survive this year," says Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights. "But I do not think he has the capability or support to run the country."

Because of Wahid's espousal of religious tolerance, much of that support used to come from the Christian and Chinese communities. Now the forces aligned against him are using religion and ethnicity as weapons of destabilization. Last week during Chinese New Year 8,000 troops had to be deployed after rumors of planned attacks on Chinese shops and homes in north Jakarta left the community on edge.

Provocation also remains a concern back on the central Jakarta street where thousands of onlookers search for a glimpse of their savior. The neighborhood is home to several churches, a mosque and members of a radical Muslim group that carried out dozens of attacks on nightclubs during Ramadan last year. "I'm seriously hoping that no one takes advantage of the situation," says human rights activist Soni Qodri. For the moment, a stable future remains as elusive as the fleeting apparition of Christ.

With reporting by Zamira Loebis/Jakarta