re: lucas isidoro bid to destabilise indonesia: pm
Whilst the deaths and injuries caused by these terrorist acts are unacceptable, we need to be sure that we do not over-react and lose perspective. Nor should we underestimate the ability of the Indonesian authorities to handle the problem, if allowed to. Whilst Australians have not been exposed before to losses such as occurred at Bali 2002, such is not the case for Indonesians. In the last decade there have been numerous incidents, not neccessarily terrorist attacks, where the loss of life and destruction of property has been even greater than Bali 2002. I was witness to one such incident in a provincial capital where a night of fighting left 100's dead, (several container loads of bodies were dumped at sea)and major destruction of commercial buildings leaving huge gaps in various city blocks. Yet within a few days life returned to normal and rebuilding began. In fact Indonesians throughout history seem to have endured large losses. Virtually every decade since independence has seen major upheavals. Even during the colonial period large losses occurred. Recently I read where Dutch troops are believed to have killed 75,000 Achenese people alone. How many Achenese have been prepared to die for their cause? A dream never achieved despite total committment. The point I trying to make that throughout all this killing and destruction, in some cases it changed the course of history (1965), but in most other cases it didn't, and society was able to put it behind them and continue on. If we add up the losses within Indonesia due to the recent Islamic extremists attacks, the total does not reach very high up the ladder, in fact it barely registers. Yet there are those who are concerned about the future threat to Australia as if it is a foregone conclusion that Indonesia will fall. I think it is far too early to even consider that Indonesia will change. The years spent under Suharto made Indonesia different to any other Islamic country and I doubt if they will turn away from their present direction. Given the huge losses suffered in various previous movements and actions, the terrorists are going to have to ramp up their attacks many fold before anyone needs to become concerned of them changing the committment of moderate Indonesia. Indonesia is a very resilent country and does have a vison for the future, don't underestimate their ability to stay the course.
