Spring Update from Indonesia
By the time you read this, Indonesia will be in full delirium in the run-up to legislative elections. Here in Timor, in the towns and along the major highway, trees and telephone poles are festooned with the photographs of candidates, some smiling, some grim, some pointing bravely off into an unspecified future. I recognize about half of them, people I’ve sat beside at weddings and funerals, familiar faces in churches where I have preached, relatives of former students, and even a smattering of fellow pastors.
By the time you read this, Indonesia will be in full delirium in the run-up to legislative elections. Here in Timor, in the towns and along the major highway, trees and telephone poles are festooned with the photographs of candidates, some smiling, some grim, some pointing bravely off into an unspecified future. I recognize about half of them, people I’ve sat beside at weddings and funerals, familiar faces in churches where I have preached, relatives of former students, and even a smattering of fellow pastors.
Knowing a bit about their personal qualities is a mixed blessing. On one hand, I can easily imagine most of them giving a sympathetic ear to the complaints and entreaties of their constituents; on the other hand, there are probably few who could actually draft any legislation. Not that I could do much better. In the US, writing laws is a specialized activity usually handled by legislative staff and other political professionals. That kind of infrastructure for democracy is still a work in progress at the national level in Indonesia and almost completely absent at the local level. When we talk about whether people are “ready” for democracy, arranging free and fair elections is comparatively the easy part. What you do afterward is the hard part.
In the corner of each candidate’s poster is the symbol of her or his political party. There are 38 of them, if you can imagine. Only a few existed before the fall of Suharto in 1998, and only a few have a clear ideology or political platform. Most are merely the vehicles to power for their corporate, religious, or military sponsors. The parties backed by former generals are of particular interest to me. Karen and I have spent much time in the past ten years (since the referendum on East Timor’s independence) dealing with the social consequences of the Indonesian military’s efforts to regain their hold on power, which was thrown up for grabs when Suharto was forced to resign. The scorched-earth withdrawal from East Timor, the refugee crisis in West Timor, the communal violence in Ambon, Halmahera, and Sulawesi, military repression in Aceh and Papua – all have become an important part of our work here in varying degrees, mine with the churches of Eastern Indonesia, and Karen’s with various human rights organizations. And all are related to the military’s initial strategy to create an atmosphere of chaos and disaster that would reaffirm the old myth that “only the military can hold this country together”.
It didn’t work, thank God. People eventually found ways to make peace, to absorb the loss and destruction, to suppress their desire for revenge, to refuse the bait that was repeatedly dangled in front of them in the form of bombs in the marketplace and assassinations of community leaders, and ultimately refused the “protection” that was offered them by the military. We have been working with churches and other civil society organizations in their brave efforts to deal with the plague of human suffering these conflicts have left behind, to seek accountability for those who perpetrated the conflict, and to build resistance against further conflict. Much of this work I have described in past letters, so I won’t repeat it here.
Although the military continues a strategy of aggressive intervention in a few locations, most notably Papua, it now seems that military figures are channeling their interests through the electoral process. I feel ambivalent about that. At least two of the major candidates for president (who have formed their own well-funded parties) are retired generals who would be prime suspects for crimes against humanity if there were a court anywhere that could try them. It is frightening that they can be considered for the presidency. The good thing is that as long as they are campaigning in a democratic process, they are not fomenting conflict. There is at least the hope that if they are rejected at the polls, it will be one more step in the gradual devolution of the power of the military over Indonesian life – rather than the prelude to more military-sponsored violence.
Over the years, friends in GMIT have known me as somewhat of an evangelist for democracy, both in society and in the church. An old friend and former moderator of the Synod with whom I have had many a debate about the lack of democracy in the church visited me yesterday. He mentioned his excitement about Obama’s election, and then said, “We don’t need to talk about what democracy means anymore. In the American elections it was there for everybody to see.” He went on to speak of his amazement that Hillary Clinton would consent to be a part of the Obama administration and that John McCain could accept his defeat with such grace and an apparently sincere pledge to cooperate.
It remains to be seen whether this positive example (from America! at last!) will have any effect on Indonesia’s emergent democracy, but the social effect has been truly remarkable. Most of the Synod office stayed up all night to watch the inauguration and spoke of how moved they were by it. My favorite story, however, is from the Secretary of the Synod, whose young son had been traumatized at school because his skin is much darker than that of his classmates (yes, there is racism in Indonesia too). She told him to just say, “Yes, I’m black just like Obama.” He did so, and came home from school proudly reporting that his friends were treating him with a new respect.
Sorry this has all been about politics, but politics is about how we can all live together, and that’s also what the church is about. The Indonesian elections are scheduled to take place on Maundy Thursday. Some churches have objected to the date, but I find it appropriate. An event when betrayal, self-sacrifice, and the hope of freedom all came together seems to set just about the right tone for an election.
Our family is well. Katie is writing her Master’s thesis in soil science at UMass, Sam is working for an environmental engineering company, and Karen continues her work with the International Center for Transitional Justice. I will be on the road in Timor, Sulawesi, and Halmahera for much of the next six months with workshops on congregational leadership, the church’s role in advocacy for human rights, and political education for pastors. We wish you all a happy and life-giving experience of Easter.
Shalom,
John Campbell-Nelson
John Campbell-Nelson serves as a professor with the Evangelical Christian Church of Timor.