Maj. Gen. Doni Monardo (JP/PJ Leo)

For Pattimura Military Command (Kodam), maintaining peace in Maluku and North Maluku, two provinces tainted by a history of bloody sectarian clashes, is no walk in the park. Kodam Pattimura commander Maj. Gen. Doni Monardo recently shared his views with The Jakarta Post’s Marguerite Afra Sapiie on his measures to prevent and resolve conflict in the regions. The following are excerpts from the interview.

Question: You have introduced the Blue Gold and Green Gold programs. Are these your strategies to maintain peace in Maluku?

Answer: When I first moved here, I tried to turn enemies into friends and friends into brothers. At the beginning, I didn’t talk about peace because it would be useless if the local people could not trust us. We needed to gain their trust. I told my personnel that we could not talk about peace, but we should talk about economic empowerment. We needed to address what the people needed. We built communication with the people.

The Blue Gold program (aimed at maximizing Maluku’s fisheries potential) involves setting up floating net cages in villages to train people to farm fish. We brought residents from conflicting villages, such as Mamala and Morella villages, together in a barracks during the training. Since the conflict, these people had stopped communicating, but when we put them together in the barracks they learned to open communications again.

The Green Gold program is aimed at maximizing Maluku’s forestry and plantation potential. The locals initially rejected us when we wanted to give them seeds to make plantations, saying that they did not need them. However after they saw our sincerity, they gradually agreed to participate. We distributed seeds, such as cloves, durian and nutmegs, to them.

As time went on, people in Morella actually began to work in Mamala and vice versa. I then asked them if there was anything that they needed aside from economic empowerment, and they said that they wanted to reconcile. I decided to discuss the main issue and told them that [peaceful] conditions would not be sustained unless the victims of the conflict forgave each other. So we sent families of the victims from both villages together to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on umrah [minor haj] pilgrimages, and they started forgiving each other after their years of holding grudges. It was the same with the Christian-populated villages. We sent the victims on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

To implement the programs you needed to change the perspectives of both the military personnel and the local people. How did you do that?

I said to the soldiers that we cannot force our ways on local people in Maluku. I started with reforming the mentality of the personnel. I prohibited them from engaging in 4M [drunkenness, aggressive staring, getting angry, hitting people] because if soldiers do that, how can they fix society? I encourage them engage in 4S [smiling, greeting, shaking hands, showing hospitality].

We should also engage with the local people. When I meet them, I always greet them. We organize cycling events together with the people in order to interact with them even more. When I visit their villages, I also spend the night at their place. The soldiers begin to think that if a high-ranking military commander is willing to spend the night there, then they should take the initiative to do so.

We approach the people by showing our concerns on economic development. The natural resources in Maluku are abundant, but not many people cared about them, so I started from there. Gradually, people began to show their trust in the military after years of losing faith because the people felt that soldiers were part of the conflict.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed that all military commands should create their own featured programs. Kodam Pattimura now has the Blue Gold and Green Gold programs, which have had a positive impact on resolving conflicts as well as countering radical teachings. When the battle in Marawi, in the Philippines, erupted and there was a call from the Islamic State [IS] movement for the people here to join, the locals instead made anti-radicalism declarations.

Maluku is home to supporters of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist movement. How do you convince them to support the economic empowerment program?

Many RMS supporters reside in Aboru. The Dutch occupied the place for hundreds of years and when they formed the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) most of its soldiers were from Aboru. They were trusted by the Dutch for their bravery and loyalty; essential characteristics for soldiers.

However, they were marginalized. They wanted to join the police and the Indonesian Military [TNI], but with the label that they were pro-RMS, they were rejected. This had turned them rebellious. When there were brawls in Ambon, the majority of the involved parties were Aboru people.

Slowly I opened the chance for them to become part of the military. Over the last two years there have been 10 recruits from Aboru. They have been deployed across the country including to Aceh, South Sumatra and South Sulawesi. I have proven that the Aboru people are not a risk and they are now part of the TNI. This has led the Aboru people to trust the TNI. The people are proud because they have an equal chance to get into the service.

My principle is that life should be balanced. I believe in “smart power”, which combines soft power and hard power. We should keep the balance between security and prosperity. When there are no threats against our security, we should prioritize improvement of the people’s welfare.

How do you ensure that your program will remain sustainable even after you have left?

I need to prepare cadres, and I do that by engaging all soldiers to take part. We try to find solutions for this program to remain sustainable, such as by accommodating the programs into regional bylaws. If there are bylaws, or gubernatorial regulations, there will be budget allocations for them.

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