Fokus kita sampai sekarang ke Maluku karena ada keributan agama.
Coba lihat keributan di Kalimantan.... Kayaknya kurang terdiskusikan.
Apa karena enggak ada yang merasa senasib atau tidak 'semenarik'
keributan di Ambon yang diwarnai kerusuhan agama?
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March 20, 1999
Fighting on Borneo Turns Savage
Filed at 8:44 p.m. EST
By The Associated Press
SEMPARUK, Indonesia (AP) -- The Dayak fighter marched down the main road
Saturday with a sword in one hand, the severed head of a victim of ethnic
warfare in the other.
He perched his bloody trophy on an oil drum, so dozens of triumphant young men
with spears and homemade rifles could see. To whoops and guffaws, somebody
stuck lit cigarettes in the mouth and ear of the head.
When two police trucks drove up, everyone pointed at the head and shouted:
``Here it is!'' Choosing not to confront the armed men, the officers smiled,
waved and left this Borneo island village.
Such brazen and macabre scenes have been commonplace in a stretch of coastal
villages near Indonesia's border with Malaysia, where ethnic fighting has
killed at least 73 people since Tuesday, reports said.
The victors were gangs of ethnic Malay and Dayak people, who sped past
crumpled, gutted houses in trucks and on motorcycles, sheathed swords slung
over their backs. Some daubed their faces with black war paint and demanded
money at roadblocks.
The rioting has ebbed, but only because there is no one left to fight. The
losers were immigrants from the island of Madura, about 13,600 of whom have
fled their homes by boat, car or military truck.
The fighting in western Borneo stems from decades-old hatreds, but fresh
antagonisms had been brewing since an incident in February when a Madurese man
refused to pay a Malay bus driver. Sporadic fighting followed, culminating in
this week's bloodshed.
Already burdened by flareups of unrest elsewhere in Indonesia, the military
has
shown little taste for tracking down the killers or rounding up weapons.
They're easy to find: virtually every young man in the streets has a sharp
weapon.
``If they say it's for their protection, we can't take it away from them,''
police Sgt. Suhardi said. He stood near two headless bodies on the side of a
road lined by rice fields and radioed for an ambulance to pick them up.
The custom of cutting off a victim's head recalls old headhunting rituals that
flourished in some Borneo jungle communities a century ago. In many areas of
the vast island, indigenous beliefs and legends still thrive, despite the
prevalence of Islam and Christianity.
``This is the head of a murderer!'' shouted Malay and Dayak fighters who
paraded with a severed head through the village of Selakau, 18 miles southwest
of Semparuk. Some trembled, entranced by their triumph. Others wore blank
stares.
``If the soldiers won't find the Madurese, we will. We've been silent for too
long,'' one man declared.
About a 15-minute drive away, soldiers at a roadblock searched cars and
minibuses, and ordered travelers to raise their shirts. A few hidden knives
and
catapults were confiscated.
The cause of the conflict lies partly in controversial migration programs that
the government began under former President Suharto to alleviate heavily
populated islands such as Madura, Bali and the main island of Java.
In Borneo, the Madurese newcomers were often viewed as thieving invaders from
the start. Last week, their enemies burned with precision: the smoking
ruins of
Madurese homes lie next to intact Malay and Dayak houses.
The river-laced, humid region has many ethnic Chinese residents, and their
colorfully painted temples were also left untouched. So were mosques and
churches.
Economic hardship has often triggered attacks on the relatively affluent
Chinese in other parts of Indonesia. And east of Borneo, fighting in Ambon
city
between Muslims and Christians has left more than 200 people dead this year.
We alone with no excuses. That is the idea... that man is condemned
to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself yet in other
respects is free ... because he is responsible for everythng he does.
The existentialist does not believe in the power of passion. He will
never agree that a sweeping passion is a ravaging torrent which
fatally leads a man to certain acts and is therefore an excuse. He
thinks that man is responsible for his passion.
"Existentialism" by Jean Paul
Sarte
