TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
CTF report: Truth, liberation, moving on
Post-conflict scenarios are sensitive in context and history
Change Size
Post-conflict scenarios are sensitive in context and history. Timor Leste is undergoing that scenario. Indonesia is looking through that same scenario.
By the very name of the commission, the Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF), I would not pin any hopes on apology, forgiveness, justice, reconciliation and social healing taking place with the findings and recommendations of the commission's final report. However, the uncovering of facts related to the violence before, during and after the referendum in East Timor in 1999 sets the groundwork for any attempt and effort to restore, rebuild and reclaim the losses and damages brought about by the violence.
Those facts are truth. They hurt some people. They also liberate others.
Some people are satisfied with the CTF report. At least for them, truth was made public and confirmed the reports of gross human rights violations in that fateful year of 1999 for East Timor and Indonesia. These people wanted to close the book of that chapter of history. They wanted both countries to move on, (toward what?). Others are concerned of where to go and what's next with the knowledge of truth. The sense of restlessness with the knowledge of truth has taken root and cannot be denied to grow and flourish.
I would not explore the painful part of truth; rather, I would open up the liberating aspect of truth which will burst into positive possibilities for both countries and their people.
It is the possession of the knowledge of truth that will start the processes of apology, forgiveness, justice and reconciliation leading to social healing. All of these processes have sociopolitical dimensions. While it is true that these processes arise mostly in the private sphere, which is mainly a subjective experience, there have been instances where these processes were seen in the public arena, which is primarily sociopolitical in nature.
I heard President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressing his deep regret after receiving the final CTF report. I also heard the Pope Benedict XXVI apologizing for the sexual abuses of the clergies in the United States and Australia. I recall the apology of Prime Minister Rudd of Australia for the injustices committed against the aborigines by the Australian government and its people.
These are symbolic and political acts. They are also vicarious ones. President SBY, Pope Benedict XXVI and Prime Minister Rudd are not the ones who committed the wrongdoings. They were acting on behalf of the offenders.
How can forgiveness be given then? Forgiveness is given to real and individual offenders and not to nameless and faceless collectives. Where are they?
This is where the report of the CTF becomes significant in East Timor's post-conflict scenario. The report holds both parties of the conflict responsible for the violence. The leaders and commanders of troops should make the apology on behalf of the troops and militias who committed the atrocities on the ground.
Most often than not, apologies do not come easily because both parties tend to claim to be the victims and not the offenders, and the offenders see nothing wrong in their acts. Those acts, as told, were by the books.
If made, the process of apology demands three things, namely the admission of wrongdoing, being sorry for the wrongdoing and restoring something that was wronged. It is then that forgiveness is possible.
Forgiveness can also be proactive, as in the case of Nelson Mandela. As a victim of brutal apartheid, he famously forgave those behind it and his imprisonment, ahead of the set-up of the Truth Commission of South Africa.
Forgiveness is in the hands of the offended -- victims and survivors of the atrocities. Where are they in this case? Have we listened to their stories?
Along with forgiveness, the destructive feeling and thinking of revenge and bitterness are transformed into trust and acceptance of history, truth and the differences in ideology, ethnicity, religion and class which oftentimes provoke people to commit violence against others.
However, forgiving prematurely may do more harm than good. The readiness and knowledge of what is to forgive are essential to the process of forgiveness.
Another process essential to a post-conflict scenario is sociopolitical justice which is largely about treating an individual or group fairly and lawfully. Any breach in treating an individual or group fairly and lawfully is a form of injustice that has to be rectified and prevented by the process of justice.
There are two types of justice, retributive and restorative. Retributive justice pertains to something that is intended to repay the wrongdoing, while restorative justice refers to something that restores the state of the person or group injured and offended by the wrongdoing.
The CTF cannot dispense justice. That is for a judicial body, an international tribunal or special court created to hear the cases of gross human rights violations. I will not recommend a regular court to try these cases for obvious reasons. The International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands, is an example of a judicial body that is created and mandated to hear cases of crimes against humanity and the like.
After justice is rendered, the process of reconciliation acts as the overriding and integrative element of processes of forgiveness, apology and justice toward social healing. It normalizes relations between the two parties.
Have there ever been normal relations between Timor Leste and Indonesia?
What I have just presented are the positive possibilities and liberating aspects of truth that we have now in our midst.
Whether they happen or not, I am convinced that truth will settle its weight on a positive note.
The writer is an intern at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and a graduate student of International Peace Studies at the University for Peace in Costa Rica and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. He can be reached at his blog http://mensab.wordpress.com.
