Gamal Nkrumah takes a long, hard look at the repercussions of last Friday's five-star hotel blasts in the Indonesian capital Jakarta The man in the outrageous orange outfit and burgundy turban was at his antics once again. He spelt out his recipe for world peace at the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Sinai. "The Security Council is the biggest source of terrorism around," thundered Libyan leader Moamar Al-Gaddafi. "It has become a sword over our necks." His words rang true, bringing to mind the millions of innocent people, men women and children, suffering under the brutal consequences of the global system of economic terrorism that reigns supreme and that the UN services. In sharp contrast to this grim reality, the elites and expatriates in impoverished countries are closeted in oases of extravagance. Western-style opulent hotels in the Muslim world have long been associated with decadence and carnality. In some Muslim countries such luxury hotels are the only waterholes where well-to-do locals and expatriates alike can guzzle down alcohol in copious quantities. Small wonder then, that they have emerged as the target of militant Islamists. This is not to excuse the atrocities afflicted on unsuspecting bystanders. However, so long as there are gross inequalities in the world, we can expect more of the same. Even moreso considering the growing gap between the rich and poor in virtually every corner of the globe. Newly re-elected Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's approach to terrorism is less complicated than that of his predecessors. He is, after all, a military strongman. He is laying down a challenge to the militant Islamists of Indonesia. He is moving quickly to put words into deeds. More than 85 per cent of the Indonesian people are Muslim, even though almost all would be termed moderate. The militants are a relatively small, angry lot. However, they have the potential to inflict horrendous damage as revealed in the blasts last Friday at the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton in Jakarta where 10 people were killed and 60 injured. Indonesia's Muslims might be moderate; however, they are overwhelmingly conservative and have become increasingly impatient with anything less than pristine Islam and especially anything that smacks of Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. When neighbouring Malaysia's National Fatwa Council banned yoga for Muslims ostensibly because Hinduism inspired the practice, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) promptly followed suit. Other important questions arise. For instance, there is no consensus on whether suicide bombers can be considered martyrs under Sharia law. The MUI condemned the Jakarta blasts but failed to come out openly against suicide bombing as legitimate form of resistance. Suicide bombers carried out the twin bombings because they were incensed by social injustice. They believe that salvation will come only by instituting an Islamic state governed by the Sharia. The organisation Jamaa Islamia intends to create a vast Islamic state in Southeast Asia encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, southern Philippines and Brunei. This optimism is all the more surprising because the region encompasses many different religious minorities and is very much a part of the secular ethos inherited from its colonial masters. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the NAM summit meeting last week in Sharm El-Sheikh singled out terrorism as one of the greatest challenges facing the movement. "Extremism, intolerance, and terrorism are our antithesis, they seek to destroy us and our movement," sang Singh. "In recent years, terrorist groups have become more sophisticated, more organised and more daring. Terrorists and those who aid and abet them must be brough to justice. The infrastructure of terrorism must be dismantled and there should be no safe havens for terrorists because they do not represent any cause, group or religion. It is time that we agree on a comprehensive convention on international terrorism," echoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Western leaders. Theo Sambuago, chairman of the Indonesian parliamentary security commission, described the situation as "grave" and pledged that the perpetrators of the blasts will be brought to book. "That is being investigated," he insisted. It is still not clear who booked room 1808 where the blast took place. Four years after the terrorist blasts that rocked Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, the country of 250 million people is once again being subjected to terror. President Yudhoyono described the blasts as "cruel and inhuman attacks". "They do not have a sense of humanity and do not care about the destruction of our country because this terror act will have wide impact on our economy, our business climate, our tourism, our image in the world," the Indonesian President lamented. The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaa Islamia, or to be more precise, one of its splinter groups, claimed responsibility. In order to assess the implications of the Jakarta blasts, we need to examine the country's checkered history. The Dutch colonialists favoured the largely Christian and Buddhist Chinese minority, alienating the Muslim majority. To this day, much of the Indonesian economy is in ethnic Chinese hands, as in neighbouring Malaysia, a former British colony. The difference of course between the two is that Indonesia's per capita income is much lower and hence the income differentials are far greater. Political Islam, therefore, was traditionally viewed as the liberation and resistance ideology heightened by the Indonesian state's disengagement from welfare provision. The blasts occurred in the plush Kuningan district, south central Jakarta, home to the Australian, British, Chinese, and United States embassies. In 2004 a car bomb exploded outside the Australian Embassy in Kuningan. Indonesia historically experienced periodic violent anti-ethnic Chinese riots, anti- Christian and anti-Western mass hysteria. Recently, the Indonesian media was replete with criticisms of Beijing's alledged policies of discrimination against its ethnic Muslim minorities and especially the Uighur people of Xingjiang Province, western China. The riots in Xingjiang received widespread publicity and public attention. The Chinese embassy in Jakarta is within walking distance of the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. The twin luxury hotels lie in the heart of the Indonesian capital's so-called "Golden Business Triangle". They are located just a stone's throw away from many of the headquarters of the multinational corporations doing business in this resource- rich country. Indonesia's financial market went into a tailspin. Japanese tourists constitute the mainstay of Indonesia's important tourism industry, which undoubtedly has been badly ruffled just as it was in the aftermath of the 2005 Bali discoteque bombings which resulted in over 500 dead and injured. The safe-haven yen rose sharply against the US dollar and the euro after the Jakarta bombings. Symbols of extravagance have become the chief targets of the Islamists, just as with the Mumbai hotel bombings last year. Ironically, the Jakarta blasts went off at the very moment that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was inspecting the site of the Mumbai blasts during her official visit to India. For gourmet readers, note that the restaurant Sailendra boasts one of Jakarta's best buffets and a walk-in wine cellar of the world's finest wines, this in a conservative Muslim country. Another irony is that US President Barack Obama, who was raised in Indonesia, had heaped praise on President Yudhoyono and the nascent Indonesian democracy. "The people of Indonesia held a free and fair election on 8 July and President Yudhoyono has impressively won re-election. The high voter turnout, spirited campaigning by all contending parties, and high level of interest among Indonesia's media, civic organisations and voter public are all evidence of the strength and dynamism of Indonesia's young democracy," Obama praised the country's democratic transformation. Yudhoyono won some 60 per cent of the vote and his nearest rival, who scooped 27 per cent, was none other than former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the first post-colonial leader of Indonesia, the legendary Sukarno. It's important to stress that Yudhoyono hails from a military background. His historic second term in office must be seen against this backdrop. He was re-elected last week for a second term in office precisely because he is seen as a "strongman" who has tackled some of the country's most intractable conflicts. The retired military general popularly called by his initials "SBY", especially by his supporters and aficionados, is married to Ani Yudhoyono, daughter of the retired General Saewo Edhie Wibowa, one of Indonesia's most high profile generals who was instrumental in crushing the Communist insurgency of the 1960s. Yudhoyono's two sons also have impeccable military credentials themselves. His eldest son Agus Harimurti, a graduate of the Indonesian Military Academy and the prestigious Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, is currently a member of the Indonesian contingent to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. His younger son, Edhie Baskoro, is following in his brother's footsteps and is at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Singapore. Hotel bombings are nothing new. The King David Hotel, Jerusalem, was the scene of the first terrorist bombing of a hotel in modern history. It was a deadly blast that claimed the lived of 91 people, mostly innocent bystanders, on 22 July 1946. The Zionist Irgun carried out the terrorist attack on the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, headquartered at the hotel at the time. The Zionist bombings were instrumental in the creation of the Jewish state of Israel. Will Islamist bombings usher the Caliphate in Southeast Asia? One matter everyone seems to agree on is that Jamaa Islamia is not exactly Irgun.
