Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (37272)	3/31/2004 7:13:07 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 793968

Strange stuff. This is what you get when you read news superficially and try to jam the square pegs into round holes. The rebels in Aceh are Muslim, but they really don't fit the Islamist image, and they don't get along at all with the JI types. That rebellion antedates the rise in Islamic extremism by some time, and does not emerge from religious issues. Aceh holds a large percentage of Indonesia's oil and gas. The industry is run by Javanese; the money gets sucked out and doesn't come back. The Acehnese don't like that. The government in Jakarta would love to convince the rest of the world that GAM is an AQ clone, because they know that if they can do that, the world - and particularly the US - will ignore the brutal and systematic regime of oppression and human rights abuse that the Indonesian government has imposed in Aceh. The TNI is doing everything in Aceh that it did in Timor, with a few new twists thrown in. The world rallied behind the Timorese, but doesn't want to hear about Aceh. The difference? The Timorese were largely Christian. The Acehnese are Muslims. The lesson does get noticed. Indonesian politicians do have to cater to the Islamic vote, but that's not because of JI. JI remains a fringe radical group with very limited support. The problem is that the mainstream Muslim groups, which have traditionally been quite conservative and have made it a point to distance themselves from the Middle Eastern radicals. That has changed substantially in the last year, and radicalism has definitely increased. That doens't mean that the mainstream Muslim organizations are backing JI or supporting terrorism. They aren't. They are, however, demanding that Jakarta distance itself from the US and Australia (always a substantial influence in Indonesia). The Indonesian government is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to support the US, but the US, by its attitudes and words more than its actions, has totally alienated the populace. The country is a democracy, though a flawed one, and Indonesian leaders are accountable not to Washington, but to the Indonesian voters. The war on terror, and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by American troops are both seen as "anti-Islamic" by many Indonesians. A classic example of destructive oversimplification. This, put simply, is complete bullshit. The nice thing about abondoning nuance is that everything looks clear and simple. The problem is that the clarity is an illusion, and if you act on the basis of that illusion, your actions will probably have consequences other than those intended.