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After Cebongan killings, a silent pact with the devil?
The prison raid in Yogyakarta last month and the recent bombings in Boston are two totally unrelated events
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he prison raid in Yogyakarta last month and the recent bombings in Boston are two totally unrelated events. But what transpired following the two incidents is eerily similar: Citizens lionizing the armed forces and willingly compromising their civil rights for the sake of security.
It is chilling to see how many Indonesians glorify the 11 Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) commandos for killing four inmates accused of slaying their former colleague. According to these supporters, the killings were justified because the victims were 'murderous thugs'. In their minds, the soldiers were the heroes. Their victims were the bad guys who deserved to die.
It is equally unsettling, though much less horrifying, to know that the US government did not read Dzhorkhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights until a few days after his arrest. Some US citizens, angered by the heinous crimes the man allegedly committed, were supportive of the move, as they lauded the police for their successful mission. In this light, Dzokhar is a terrorist, an enemy of the state (He is actually still a suspect and not declared an 'enemy combatant').
This trend is just disturbing. Indonesia and the US are among the world's largest democracies. But, seeing that the people of both nations are seemingly willing to trade civil rights for security or protection shows that democracy is losing ground.
Those who stand behind Kopassus have failed to understand that the four 'thugs' accused of killing a soldier of the elite unit had the right to a fair trial. If they were found guilty, they could have been jailed or faced a firing squad.
They did not, for whatever reasons, deserve to be shot dead while awaiting trial.
This is why the Cebongan killings were by no means justified. The right to a fair trial applies in all countries that respect rule of law, including the US. Dzhokhar, a suspected terrorist, is a US citizen. Despite media reports and testimonies pointing to his involvement in the incident, he has the right to remain silent and have a lawyer defend him during questioning.
The four murder suspects allegedly killed by the Kopassus soldiers and Dzhokhar are probably guilty as charged. But they are innocent until proven otherwise. This is what we stand for. This is how any civilized country should treat suspected criminals.
But in desperate times, we are so blinded by fear and hatred that rational principles are tossed out the door.
In our case, the most cited reason for justifying the Cebongan killings is the failure of the law enforcers
to maintain security and uphold justice.
Over the past few years, it has become quite common for Indonesians to reminisce about the good old days when Soeharto was still in power. It was safer. There were no thugs. There were no terrorists.
The ghost of the iron-fisted leader is again haunting the nation at a time when democracy has been widely perceived as a breeding ground for chaos and insecurity.
It is no surprise that in the lead up to the 2014 elections, pollsters have found support for the likes of former Kopassus commander (ret) Gen. Prabowo Subianto' Soeharto's former son-in-law ' is growing. People want stability and security even if it may cost them their rights.
I am not saying that we do not need security. But, there is no need to sell our souls to the devil for it. It may be true that we are safer from terrorism and any form of vigilantism if we are living under a totalitarian state. But that is a Faustian bargain that in the end will put us on the losing side.
If you approve what the Kopassus soldiers did, do note that your approval could only be seen as an implied license for the armed forces to commit extrajudicial killings. How do you know they will not abuse such power? What if their next victims are innocent?
In less than a month after the prison killings, a group of Indonesia Military (TNI) soldiers reportedly attacked the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) headquarters in South Jakarta. The attack was triggered by a fracas involving a student and a soldier over a minor traffic incident. If somebody had been killed during the incident, would you still be defending the TNI?
In times of frustration over hard-liners ' be they terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda or religious vigilante groups like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) ' totalitarianism offers us an appealing quick fix.
The Mephistopheles of our time are handing the government the power to encroach our freedom in return for artificial and temporal security.
Writing for Salon.com, Andrew O'Hehir said that US citizens already traded their rights for security after the 9/11 attacks and they ended up getting neither of them. Time will tell whether they will end up trading more of their rights, with lawmakers there planning to use the Boston tragedy as a pretext to pass draconian bills such as CISPA.
As a preacher of democracy, the US should know the world is watching how they treat the Boston bombings suspect. The world condemns the bombings and laments the loss of innocent lives, but the accused perpetrator has the right to due process.
We are lucky that religious hard-liner groups, in a rare occurrence, were with us in blocking the contentious mass organization bill, which was seen by many as an attempt to bring the New Order back.
But the growing support for Kopassus soldiers accused of extrajudicial killings shows that many Indonesians may really hope for the return of Soeharto's authoritarianism.
I am beginning to wonder, in the wake of the Cebongan killings, with people standing behind the rogue Kopassus soldiers, are we silently forging a Faustian deal with the ghost of Soeharto? The future suddenly looks so grim for Indonesia beyond 2014.
The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.
