Thoughts from the garden, page-6

We also have something called freedom of expression (in the press, in the community, within a protest setting, and in everyday activity and behaviour).

We also exercise tolerance, acceptance of others, and one of the most multi-culturally diverse countries in the world.

Yet, elsewhere, many of these same freedoms, tolerances, or acceptances of others simply do not exist.

When last I checked, our political /voting system was not rigged to produce articifial or distorted results - Heaven knows, even the Greens now have a H of R seat in the former Labor bastion of Wollongong!!!.

Nor was the system such that any departing leader took with them the plundered loot of the Treasury - in the $100s of millions (or more) as opposed to the $100s of thousands generally associated with superannuation.

Looking at Hansard, I can reach for my red or green weekly volumes, or simply download the daily proofs to see what our representatives in Canberra or elsewhere are saying - freedom of democracy, one might say.

But, when we look elsewhere, there is little in the way of association, behaviour or commentary that society can either access or take on board and participate in.

One of the great functioning strengths of democracy, and of a society built upon the pillars of freedom, respect and tolerance, is that we can all embrace multi-faceted, or varied views, be respected for this, and yet still be allowed to get on with our lives without fear of retribution or attack.

Again, many of those located elsewhere do not embrace this type of philosophy or approach.

In a world where many things can be sharply brought into context, it is interesting to note that the years have never been lived more dangerously than by Australians in relation to Indonesia.

Whether dating back to:
1)
the Malaya Emergency;
2)
to the formative years of Sukarno's rule (following the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, after they first occupied Indonesia 1942);
3)
1965 and the failed bloody coup attempt of 30 September which eventually brought Suharto to power in 1966;
4)
the murder of the Australian journalists in Timor in 1975, following the invasion of East Timor;
5)
the liberation of East Timor in 1999; and
6)
now, Bali,

Australia, and Australians, have always been a target in relation to Indonesia. But, by no means have they been the sole, or continuing, target.

In the aftermath of the aborted 1965 coup, for instance, large-scale killings occurred throughout Jawa Timur Province and on Bali, but also in parts of Sumatra (ie: estimates ranged up to 2.0m killed, but more likely approximated 300,000+.

Tensions also rose to their highest between China, the army, and among local islamic leaders.

From a Chinese perspective, both the military and local islamic leaders were enraged when the then Chienese Premier, Zhou Enlai, offered to supply the PKI with arms (ie: thereby converting the PKI into the 5th arm of the military).

Within the military, support by 1965 was sharply divided between:
1)
the communists (ie: those factions supporting Sukarno and the PKI); and
2)
the re-emerging nationalists who were, by now, opposed to Sukarno's continued rule of Indonesia (ie: those factions supporting ABRI chief of staff Nasution and Major General Suharto, commander of Kostrad. Sukarno's collapse at a speech and rumors that he was dying also added to the atmosphere of instability).

Members of Ansor, the Nahdatul Ulama's youth branch, were particularly zealous in carrying out a "holy war" against:
1)
the PKI on the village level; and
2)
the Chinese, on a wider, mob violence, level.

Whilst estimates of the numbers killed (ie: Chinese and others) have varied widely over the years, "from a low of 78,000 to 2 million; probably somewhere around 300,000 is most likely. Whichever figure is true, the elimination of the PKI was the bloodiest event in postwar Southeast Asia until the Khmer Rouge established its regime in Cambodia a decade later".

Elsewhere in Indonesia, there has also been a history of widespread and continuing violence, borne largely out of historical circumstance.

The occupations of both East Timor and West Papua are each accounted for in terms of their historical circumstance.

So too, the widespread and continuing violence in Ambon.

Back in April 1950, the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) was proclaimed at Ambon (suppressed by November 1950, when a Government in exile was established in the Netherlands, and 12000 Ambonese soldiers and their families fled Indonesia).

With its large Christian population and long history of collaboration with Dutch rule (Ambonese soldiers had formed an indispensable part of the colonial military), the region was one of the few with substantial pro-Dutch sentiment. Much of this sentiment continues through to today.

And, so it goes, on.

In the coming years, Indonesia will prove to be one of our greatest challenges, as the islands strive for independence, and Java strives for control.

Whilst in some circumstances, the reasons may well be faith related, other reasons are colonially linked, communist influenced, and Japanese inspired.

In Indonesia, the Years of Living Dangerously have well and truly returned, and not just because of JI or al Qaeida.