---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Dengan mengClick banner sponsor anda menyumbang Rp. 1000,- untuk HomePage IndoNews. ---------------------------------------------------------- KOLOM SUPANGKAT: WHO OPENED THE PANDORA BOX CONTAINING RELIGIOUS WAR? We all agree that somebody has opened the Pandora Box knowing it contained the abominable religious war. Now the militant Muslims in Jakarta marched around and declared the holy war "jihad" in Ambon. This is the beginning of the end for tabooed "Sara" starting with the violence against churches in Tasikmalaya and other towns in Java that spread out quickly to Kupang in West Timor. And even the mighty ABRI was not able to stop the ethnic and religious strife in Ambon. The deployment of the elite forces to stop it is much much too late, why did General Wiranto have to wait that long until it got out of hands? Ambon is one of the small islands, and the ABRI is ineffective. What happens if such incidents exploded in many towns simultaneously given the militants are out of control as they had proved it in Banyuwangi, East Java where orthodox Muslims were slaughtered for no reason at all? It is only logical that if they can do it to fellow Muslims they can do it too to other religious groups, especially the Christians whom they blamed in Kupang and now in Ambon? The religious war is really terrifying because they are doing it in the name of God who is given different names by man: Allah, (Muslims and Christian Science), Je- sus Christ or Christ Jesus (Christians), Hyang Widi Wasa (Hindu Bali), etc. But he is the selfsame one and only God. The intolerance breeds hate and once you hate, for all you get back hate. It is almost impossible to eradicate hate. You have the perennial hate in Ulster where Christians hate Christians, in Iraq where Muslims hate Muslims (Sunni vs Syi'ah), in Bosnia, particularly in Sarajevo where the ethnic cleansing is based on religions where Christians or Communists hate Muslims, in Kashmir: Hindu against Mus- lims, and now we have a first time situation in Indonesia where Christians and Muslims are mass murdering one another for no particular reason after the co- existed peacefully for almost 200 years. I have been writing that Indonesia lacks good leadership as an aftermath of the fall of Suharto the dictator but people wouldn't consider the collective leadership under the Presidium as the only alternative to fill in the vacuum. Weak leaders in mind and charisma are still claiming to be qualified to lead In- donesia heading towards the Intensive Care Unit for its multiple diseases which are both chronic and acute simultaneously. Bloodshed, bloodshed, bloodshed in East Timor, in Aceh, in Java, now in Ambon at the same time our economy is going down the drain continuously since the Krismon in May last year. Finally the cry for Jihad is heard loudly in Jakarta and it will have an echo some- where else. Heaven knows what next? Where are the good Indonesians now? Could there be another Loth negotiating with God? H.S. Hidayat Supangkat New York. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 5 Mar 1999 jam 09:32:25 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
