Saudara-saudara pecinta lingkungan Yth:
Nampaknya pembicaraan mengenai usaha sekelompok ilmuwan luar negeri untuk
memboikot konferensi terumbu karang di Bali telah bergeser ke pertentangan
Timur-Barat yang bila topik bahasannya tidak dibatasi dengan baik, hanya
akan jadi debat kusir. Selain itu, pembicaraan seperti ini makin akan
menjauh dari topik lingkungan dan bergerak ke arah politik, sosial, budaya
dsb. Tapi bila memang anggota list setuju saja, maka saya juga tidak
keberatan. Namun demikian, saya masih ingin kembali pada usaha pemboikotan
konferensi di Bali tersebut.
Setelah saya baca dengan teliti, petisi yang diajukan oleh Lida Pet-Soeda
dan Jan Henning Steffen (saya percaya setidaknya salah satu bule; bule yang
penuh nalar saya kira) sudah mencakup alasan kenapa konferensi itu perlu ada
di Bali seperti yang telah direncanakan , dan bahwa pemindahan ke tempat
lain tidak akan membawa pengaruh sedikitpun terhadap hubungan Indonesia
(pemerintah/militer) dengan Timor Timur. Namun pemboikotan itu justru sangat
merugikan komunitas pecinta terumbu karang Indonesia dan peluang menimbulkan
kesadaran akan pentingnya tidak merusak terumbu karang.
Berkenaan dengan ini, surat balasan Evan Edinger terhadap petisi Lida
Pet-Soeda dan Jan Steffen kurang tepat. Karena itu saya ingin menanggapi
Evan. Tanggapan ini saya kirim ke maillist ini karena saya tidak tahu
alamat Evan Edinger. Mudah-mudahan Harry bisa menyampaikannya.
Dear Evan Edinger:
I am a scientist but not working on coral reef and therefore knew
absolutely nothing about 9th ICRS on Bali. However, I agree to Pet-Soede
and Steffen's petition on not relocating 9th ICRS from Bali. The petition
has presented the reasons thoughtfully. Basically, relocation of the
meeting out from Bali will not put any pressure and have effect to
Indonesian goverment or military action against East Timor (whatever the
action is) but it will significantly remove the possibility of educating a
large audiences in Indonesia regarding the importance of coral reef.
As bad as Indonesian military could be, I think it is simply not fair to
compare them with Millosevic who admittedly and openly did what he did in
Serbia or Apharteid government in South Africa let alone Saddam Hussein who
tried to invade Kuwait and all. Indonesian goverment has treated East
Timor well, to some extent better than other province. It can not be
compared to Dutch when colonizing Indonesia, or maybe Portuguese when
colonizing East Timor or European to native American or maybe Englishmen to
Australian Aborigin. The tragedy in East Timor after referendum was
unexpected and unpredicted, and regretted by sane Indonesian. If you look
for someone to blame, is not it the fault of all of those parties involved
(Portugal Government, UN and Indonesia Government, and others) that assumed
everything would be OK after referendum. And do you honestly believe that
there was no unfairness whatsoever during the referendum that is
administered by the UN? Do you honestly believe that UN did not takeside in
conducting the referendum? Do you belive that there will be no retaliation
against the militias by CNRT during the present of UN forces? Do you
honestly believe that Portugal government and Australian and other simply
act out of humanitarian reasons without other interest such as oil,
territory, races. I brought this up just to show how complicated this
tragedy might be. However, I do not intend to defend the Indonesian
military that failed in maintaining order in East Timor just as they failed
to maintain safety in Jakarta over a year ago. I will be as glad as anybody
else to see the criminals brought to justice.
It seems true that Indonesian government respons to international
pressures, such as from IMF who lend money or US goverment. Now that
referendum was done and followed with unexpected aftermath, and UN and
Australian forces have been allowed to come in and take control in East
Timor, what else do you want? What other objectives do you want to achive
by using international pressure especially the Coral Reef pressure if I may
call it?
If you belief that the military is the culprit, than to the military the
pressure should be directed, not to coral reef scientists on the country,
unless the military or even government could take advantages from the
meeting.
I do not see how you can support the effort of Indonesia student movement
to make a better and more democratic Indonesia by relocatting the coral reef
meeting from Bali.
Violation of human right is almost everyday life in Indonesia. It so
commonly happen that sometimes we consider it normal, unless it so paramount
such as kidnapping, mass raping against woman of certain ethinc group,
shooting and killing of demonstrating students, killing of religious men,
buchering man's head and shows the head around town, burning of thousand of
looters inside stores, to mention some. We, Indonesian are very concerned
about all those, but we can not just play boycotting averything blindly and
indescriminately.
You may exercise your right as you wish and act according to what you
belief very strongly. As a scientist, however, I also believe that we are
trained to be objective, be effective in achieving our goal and most
importantly not taking generalization out of lazyness to ferret out
details. Once again, relocating meeting from Bali would not have any effect
on government and military but seriously removing a possibilaty of educating
people to the imporatance of coral reef in its largest habitat.
Sincerely,
Witjaksono
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
