yak, whilst we seem to be close on some points, maybe you would like to read this editorial. A war within.. Editorial Desk-The Jakarta Post Tuesday, September 12. 2006 Five years after hijackers slammed jet planes into the Twin Towers in New York we found ourselves in a more dangerous world. The United States' response to Sept. 11, blamed on al-Qaeda, played a key role in building up the hostilities. Summing up a complex issue with the risk of being over-simplistic, President George W. Bush thought it was a good idea to pursue al-Qaeda accomplishes in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden responded by provoking one billion Muslims in the world.This promptly created tension between moderate and militant Indonesian Muslims at the outset of the "war on terror". It took about a year before the moderates realized that Islam was being hijacked by bin Laden for non-Islamic purposes. In the interim, we also learned that it needs a Saudi to elude the United States, just like it needs a Malaysian to elude Indonesia. Noordin M. Top, a suspect in a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, is still at large. As America showed the world about its poor understanding of Islam, bin Laden's biggest "missile" fired at the U.S. -- which it failed to recognize -- was the unleashing of religious emotion and the fanning of hatred toward the West. Under the banner of Islam, bin Laden enticed the diverse Muslim communities across the globe into believing that they were a single front united against the West. He appears to have harvested thousands of disillusioned youths in the process, left out by the scourge of globalization and failed governments. The U.S.' subsequent attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq have only increased bin Laden's stature. As the largest Muslim nation in the world, the war against terror has also had an adverse effect on Indonesia. One recent example was this odd demand. When asked what they thought about capital punishment for people convicted of terror crimes, a group of Muslim protesters simply said: "kill the Christians first". The protesters had just learned of the government's decision to delay the execution of three cathlic men on death row for crimes in Poso's sectarian conflict. Fabianuus Tibo and his two accomplices were found guilty in 2001 of inciting a riot in the Central Sulawesi city in 2000. The government, under immense public pressure, delayed the execution of the three men last month. The stay of execution came at the heels of a report that one of the three Muslim convicts sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali bombings was found to have a laptop in his prison cell. Allegations were made that Imam Samudra might have directed the 2005 Bali bombings as well. That a laptop could make its way to the prison is a chilling reminder of our corrupt penitentiary system. It is public knowledge that prisoners in this country, if they have money or connections, are among the most "spoiled" in the world. National Police chief Gen. Sutanto refuted the allegation last week in front of lawmakers in Jakarta. But politicians found ammunition in their hands to fan Christian-Muslim tensions by capitalizing on the differences between how the two sets of convicts were treated. Tibo, being a Christian and Imam, a Muslim. It did not seem to matter that the two cases were quite unrelated. Hence the demands made by the Muslim protesters. These off-kilter parallels are an example of what happens locally in a world plagued with hostilities between the West and Islam. Domestic politics certainly factored in the above cases but global events influence Indonesian politics too. In 2001, the country was only three years into a democracy, recently freed from three decades of dictatorship. It was reeling under the onslaught of the Asian financial crisis. Pundits had warned that the nation would break up into smaller states. Its bureaucracy had inherited a legacy of deep-rooted corruption and its society had a long history of lawlessness and violence. But these should be no excuse for the country's weaknesses in fighting terrorism. Indonesians should refrain from blaming others. No other country can help us win the war against terror. The four attacks the country has sustained since 2002, compared to only one in the U.S. reflects Indonesia's vulnerability. After the first Bali bombing in 2002, came the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003, the Australian Embassy bombing in 2004 and the second Bali bombing last October. The government should be aware that its homegrown jihadists exist partly due to its own making; they are as much victims of successive regimes' disinterest, inaction and policy failures as they are the perverted teachings of some religious leaders. Given the country's many institutional weaknesses, terrorist attacks are likely to remain until good governance takes hold. This is likely to be a long and difficult enterprise. It implies a time when more Indonesian leaders are able to put the people's interests before their personal ones; an alien idea in the leadership culture of today. It means a time when corruption has been brought down to a minimum and a change in the reluctance of the military, the police, and the courts to deal with lawlessness. It also means a stop to the common practice of exploiting religious issues for short-term political gains, and a tangible increase in the wellbeing of the country's more than 40 million poor -- equal to 10 Singaporeans. Sept. 11 serves as a mirror to look into ourselves. A fight against terrorism is, in essence, a fight against our own failings. and, place your bets now... Bookmakers tip Yudhoyono for Nobel Peace Prize.
