A republic of fear, again?
What do the two shooting incidents in Central Sulawesi and the bomb threat at the Surabaya airport on Wednesday mean to the Indonesian people? Will the bloody civil war in Central Sulawesi begin again? What about the bomb hoax in Surabaya? What should the police – as the country’s sole domestic security guarantor – do in response?
Three separate incidents – the bomb threat at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, and the shooting incidents in Central Sulawesi’s capital Palu and in Poso regency – shocked the country at a time when the nation was being assured of the country’s effective security management after the foiled bomb attacks in Tangerang, Banten, and the subsequent arrest of suspects in several Indonesian cities last month.
As the bomb threat at Juanda was neutralized, the shooting incident in Palu, where two helmeted gunmen on two motorcycles fired at three police officers who were guarding BCA Bank office, took the lives of two officers and wounded another. The shooting in Poso was not deadly, as the two gunmen just fired their guns into the air.
The three incidents, plus the recent disturbing issues surrounding the revival of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) movement, have undoubtedly given the impression to the general public that the arrest of bombing suspects last year and the death of leading al-Qaeda-related bombing suspects Azahari and Noordin M. Top in previous years had not completely put a stop to terror in the country. The latest incidents should serve as a wake-up call for the police to take immediate measures to regain control of the country’s security and strive to anticipate and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
As the police are still collecting evidence about the bomb threat at Juanda airport, they have yet to discover the motives or if there is any relationship between the shooting incidents in Sulawesi, including any potential motives for terror. They also have yet to identify whether the incidents in Palu and Poso have any links with the armed robbery at a CIMB Niaga Bank in Medan, North Sumatra, in August of last year and the attack on the Hamparan Perak Police station in North Sumatra’s Deli Serdang regency in September, also last year.
Still, the police deserve praise, as their hunt for the perpetrators in the Palu incident immediately bore fruit as they arrested the two motorcycle riders and confiscated three rifles from them in a police raid at the province’s intercity road early Thursday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, the police were still in pursuit of the two Poso suspects, who reportedly fled into the jungle.
The police’s rapid responses to the latest incidents are surely expected. Still, they are considered fire extinguishing measures. What is more important and badly needed are anticipatory measures by the police so as to prevent such incidents from happening in the future, and systematic efforts involving all parts of the nation to tackle the root causes of terror and violence, which have repeatedly haunted the country.
No one expects that fear will haunt our republic again.
Three separate incidents – the bomb threat at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, and the shooting incidents in Central Sulawesi’s capital Palu and in Poso regency – shocked the country at a time when the nation was being assured of the country’s effective security management after the foiled bomb attacks in Tangerang, Banten, and the subsequent arrest of suspects in several Indonesian cities last month.
As the bomb threat at Juanda was neutralized, the shooting incident in Palu, where two helmeted gunmen on two motorcycles fired at three police officers who were guarding BCA Bank office, took the lives of two officers and wounded another. The shooting in Poso was not deadly, as the two gunmen just fired their guns into the air.
The three incidents, plus the recent disturbing issues surrounding the revival of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) movement, have undoubtedly given the impression to the general public that the arrest of bombing suspects last year and the death of leading al-Qaeda-related bombing suspects Azahari and Noordin M. Top in previous years had not completely put a stop to terror in the country. The latest incidents should serve as a wake-up call for the police to take immediate measures to regain control of the country’s security and strive to anticipate and prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
As the police are still collecting evidence about the bomb threat at Juanda airport, they have yet to discover the motives or if there is any relationship between the shooting incidents in Sulawesi, including any potential motives for terror. They also have yet to identify whether the incidents in Palu and Poso have any links with the armed robbery at a CIMB Niaga Bank in Medan, North Sumatra, in August of last year and the attack on the Hamparan Perak Police station in North Sumatra’s Deli Serdang regency in September, also last year.
Still, the police deserve praise, as their hunt for the perpetrators in the Palu incident immediately bore fruit as they arrested the two motorcycle riders and confiscated three rifles from them in a police raid at the province’s intercity road early Thursday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, the police were still in pursuit of the two Poso suspects, who reportedly fled into the jungle.
The police’s rapid responses to the latest incidents are surely expected. Still, they are considered fire extinguishing measures. What is more important and badly needed are anticipatory measures by the police so as to prevent such incidents from happening in the future, and systematic efforts involving all parts of the nation to tackle the root causes of terror and violence, which have repeatedly haunted the country.
No one expects that fear will haunt our republic again.
Democracy before peace
This may seem a novelty to bringing peace in the Middle East: promote democracy as far as possible in the Arab world, including in the Palestinian territories, before pushing them and Israel to settle their long-drawn conflict.
That was the chief message of US President Barack Obama’s speech when he laid out his new Middle East policy that accounted for the democratic uprisings that dramatically shook the Arab world. This message, representing a major policy shift, however, was lost, as the focus of attention quickly turned to Obama’s insistence of a position – held by all his predecessors – that the border before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war should be “the basis” of negotiations for peace. Whatever Israel has to say about the pre-1967 border, it is the premise that is supported not only by the majority of Palestinians but also by the United Nations.
While Obama was correct in prodding Israel to use this historic opportunity to make peace with its Arab neighbors, given the fluid situation in the Arab world, peace talks would have to take a back seat for now while Arab countries resolve things by themselves – one way or another – about the kind of governments they want to set up.
Egypt and Tunisia are already ahead in opening the way for democracy, but in countries such as Libya, Syria and Bahrain, long-entrenched dictators are pushing back and even killing their own people who are clamoring for freedom and democracy. The two major rival Palestinian political factions have already made peace and are now preparing for democratic elections that would unite their people currently divided, both physically and politically, between the West Bank and the tiny Gaza Strip.
No one can predict what the Middle East and North Africa will look like in one or two years, just as no one predicted that the Arab Spring would shake all the tyrannical regimes in the region. But the international community, including the United States, must come on the side of the people wanting freedom, democracy and dignity.
A government that is democratically elected and fully accountable to its people is much less likely to wage war on another democracy. We should give democracy a chance to work in Egypt and hopefully in other countries in the region and pray that peace will somehow come to the Middle East. It’s certainly worth a try.
That was the chief message of US President Barack Obama’s speech when he laid out his new Middle East policy that accounted for the democratic uprisings that dramatically shook the Arab world. This message, representing a major policy shift, however, was lost, as the focus of attention quickly turned to Obama’s insistence of a position – held by all his predecessors – that the border before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war should be “the basis” of negotiations for peace. Whatever Israel has to say about the pre-1967 border, it is the premise that is supported not only by the majority of Palestinians but also by the United Nations.
While Obama was correct in prodding Israel to use this historic opportunity to make peace with its Arab neighbors, given the fluid situation in the Arab world, peace talks would have to take a back seat for now while Arab countries resolve things by themselves – one way or another – about the kind of governments they want to set up.
Egypt and Tunisia are already ahead in opening the way for democracy, but in countries such as Libya, Syria and Bahrain, long-entrenched dictators are pushing back and even killing their own people who are clamoring for freedom and democracy. The two major rival Palestinian political factions have already made peace and are now preparing for democratic elections that would unite their people currently divided, both physically and politically, between the West Bank and the tiny Gaza Strip.
No one can predict what the Middle East and North Africa will look like in one or two years, just as no one predicted that the Arab Spring would shake all the tyrannical regimes in the region. But the international community, including the United States, must come on the side of the people wanting freedom, democracy and dignity.
A government that is democratically elected and fully accountable to its people is much less likely to wage war on another democracy. We should give democracy a chance to work in Egypt and hopefully in other countries in the region and pray that peace will somehow come to the Middle East. It’s certainly worth a try.
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