Indonesia; the nastiest country in the world?

Indonesia; the nastiest country in the world?
By Xanana Gusmao 4th
Mar 8, 2006, 07:17

We would like to illustrate just how nasty the Indonesian Government is right now. Hopefully you will understand and agree that nasty governments breed nasty people. We are not saying all Indonesians are nasty. In fact we applaud those Indonesians who despite the odds lead decent human lives. The problem past large scale crimes as we believe the Indonesian Authorities commit, plus the culture of corruption which permeates down from government through law enforcement and every other government agency not just denies the Indonesian public role models and the safety net that true justice brings, but this nasty “from the top” culture of thieves sends a signal to the everyday people of Indonesia to act against and steal from others as well. Honest Indonesians are therefore to be applauded, because they have no role models to follow, no real justice to keep them on the straight and narrow, and are likely being cheated and stolen from themselves on a daily basis.

Far from improving their aggressive anti-social acts and corruption levels or human and civil rights record, the Indonesian Government clearly is on a downward slope. We believe the government spends time to be more adept at disguising its disgusting methods and actions to the outside world, but does nothing to live up to their words. We also believe foreign governments both turn a blind eye plus pander to the otherwise unbelievable Indonesian wobble (shallow spin) machine to facilitate substantial financial awards for their major corporations from product and services sales. We believe western governmental foreign policy is a case of one rule for us, another for them because if “we” don’t play the game and get the export revenue from Indonesia, other countries will. We understand that foreign governments presently are faced with such a dilemma, so we believe it is the duty of individual human beings to do what their governments are fearful of doing officially due to economic pressures. We ask foreigners to boycott anything and everything Indonesian until such a time as their government acts for the people as a whole, not a select nepotistic number. If any foreigner is foolish enough to think about investing in Indonesia, understand you will get robbed and cheated, absolutely.

Bali BS started recognizing just how universally bad the Indonesian Government and Authorities are as a result of an Australian real life TV program about law enforcement agencies there; in particular a program which put camera crews on board an Australian Coast Guard vessel conducting fisheries enforcement duty. It seems a large number of Indonesian fisherman sail to Australian waters to fish illegally. When the crew of this particular Australian Coast Guard vessel spotted an illegal Indonesian fishing boat well within Australian waters, it sent a boarding party alongside which they commented could be risky as Indonesian fishermen are often armed. The Australian Coastguards actually successfully boarded the Indonesian vessel without incident and then it became clear the ancient fishing boat was taking on water and the weather condition was worsening, so they started towing the boat to safety. However with increasingly rough seas, the Indonesian fishing boat became unsafe, so they took the crew aboard to bring them safely to shore; they were treated well at all times and like human beings. But compare that with how an Indonesian military vessels dealt with a Chinese fishing vessel allegedly just inside Indonesian waters with an expired fishing permit (see: Indonesian Navy); the Indonesian sailors repeatedly shot up the slow, aged unarmed vessel killing a member of the crew. We believe this accurately reflects what Indonesia has become, a culture of hate, violence and theft; not in any way a civilized country.

Mother Madre - One of several nuns killed, believed by Indonesian police

When the East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao was to face Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a meeting brokered by the UN to discuss a report that Indonesia murdered 100,000 Timorese people during the unlawful Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975-1999, the Indonesian parliament protested and the meeting was cancelled. Although the meeting was subsequently rescheduled almost certainly because of International pressure and embarrassment, it shows the present Indonesian administration has absolutely no regret or compassion for the innocent lives their predecessors took. But that should come as no surprise as recent Indonesian Governments failed to convict a single member of its armed forces for crimes against humanity in East Timor, despite the massive evidence against people such as General Wiranto, the notorious army leader of Indonesia’s occupation force. Little surprise to some therefore to hear Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was an Indonesian major in Timor who reported directly to Wiranto. The attitude of the Indonesian parliament shows they still harbour a belief they have rights to East Timor, plus shows they do not care an iota about the murder, on average 11 a day, of people subjected to their invasion. If the report is accurate this means the Indonesian armed forces and their local vigilantes killed 10% of East Timor’s population.

Munir Said Thalib - Believed murdered by BIN (Indonesian "Intelligence" Service)

Recently the case of Munir Said Thalib an Indonesian human rights champion made the International headlines when he was murdered by a state owned Garuda Airline pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who is also a suspected member of Indonesia’s state intelligence service “BIN” in International airspace (see Munir Said Thalib). After a clear attempt at cover up Priyanto went to court and was found guilty of murder, yet was sentenced to just 14 years imprisonment for premeditated murder in International airspace, hmmmm! Of course the tiresome and implausible Indonesian spin, or perhaps better “wobble” machine (spin implies a level of credibility) says that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an investigation into this matter. We say the whole court case was most likely an institutional fraud in particularly bad taste and that it will never be legitimately “investigated”. Also that likely state hero Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto probably will never see the inside of a jail cell courtesy of a sudden illness and doctor’s notes, and whose sentence will be reduced and reduced as is typical in Indonesian sham judgments.

We say evidence clearly shows that Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto is a murdering officer of the Indonesian Government as he had never met his victim so had no personal agenda against him, plus somehow found out Munir Said Thalib’s flight details to Amsterdam. Thalib was going to study International human rights law in the Netherlands / Holland; Priyanto clearly therefore set out to murder him for misguided national interests, worked clearly with other members of the state owned Garuda flight to upgrade Thailb to business class where he could then poison his drink with arsenic. More nasty proof of complicity comes from the fact no Garuda airline staff member on duty would help Munir as he died in pain, the pilot would not land the plane as Munir vomited blood so he could go to hospital, and then they arranged for a phony airline doctors report that Munir had died from a heart attack. Incidentally, while we believe this shows without a shadow of a doubt that the Indonesian Government was involved in this murder, we also believe it shows how unintelligent the Indonesian Authorities are. You see, they assumed their nasty act would go undiscovered and that they would be able to get Munir’s body back to Indonesia where it, along with the truth would be buried, but forgot to check Dutch / EU law requiring a postmortem be conducted! If we are right, and we are sure we are, that makes the appropriately abbreviated BIN yet inappropriately accredited Indonesian Intelligence Service and their Indonesian Government masters not only nasty to the core but also butt stupid as well.

We believe the time has come to send a clear message to Indonesia and its government that they need to change and change fast. Indonesia needs to make corruption and human rights abuse a capital offence (death penalty), so any government official from president to traffic duty police officer or armed forces member caught committing corruption or evil acts against others should face the firing squad, and the investigators should be “Kontras”; the human rights and anti-corruption organization set up by Munir Said Thalib. Until the Indonesian Government acts as it is elected to and is their International responsibility to, or until the Balinese / Indonesian people rid themselves of the stench of Indonesian corruption culture and human rights abuse / suppression, we suggest all foreigners who have any morality and / or conscience to boycott this very nasty country in every way.