When Activism Kills

WHEN ACTIVISM KILLS

by Farid Abdullah

If we were to conduct an impromptu, informal survey with friends, policy officials, academics, and media officials to see if they think militant leftist terrorism exists in Indonesia the immediate reaction will be denial, disbelief and platitudes of ignorance.  The vast majority of the political leadership is prone to ignorance of an undercurrent which, not unlike the jihadists, is growing and is finding willing participants in the new forms of terrorism in Indonesia.  This undercurrent is still in the early stages of its evolution, but the Rubicon was crossed a long time ago.

In recent days the media space has been filled with claims of heroism by the “green warriors” who were arrested by Russian authorities.  Staged demonstrations by a global non-governmental organization features irate protesters holding placards reading “activism is not a crime.”  They say also activism does not kill. This is wrong.  Activism does kill. And therefore that makes activism a crime.

In Sumatra, the prosecutor’s office announced on 27 September that it would level murder charges against one of the leaders of a militant splinter group of the People’s Democratic Party. The indictment against the 30-something-old local activist provided a few surprises. First, the murder was declared to have been a premeditated killing. The penalty for premeditated killing is either life in prison or the firing squad. Second, the indictment implicated 16 other individuals who are members of this new form of terrorism. Others arrests and indictments are expected.

For the first time Indonesia has a new form of terrorism pursuing the “war of the people.”  Covered under the mantle of eco-warrior type activity, Indonesia is exposed every other day by an onslaught of environmental doomsday scenarios that feeds nihilistic worldviews of militants.  For some reason some NGOs blindly accepted these violent militants in its ranks, with no oversight. Although the accused murderers are part of the political landscape in alliance with one of the presidential candidates, militant activists such as these have been active in Indonesia for some time.

Indonesian authorities have long overlooked the violent elements that are part of the civil society groups perforating the non-violent civil society groups. In Sumatra this case is particularly interesting since the leader of the PRD in Riau was found posing with a weapon in a Lee Oswald Harvey style of picture.  He was later elected into the supervisory board of a foreign NGO.

Jikalahari fulfills an intelligence-like role that enables most of the foreign NGOs operating in Indonesia to coordinate their activism. It regularly shares information with foreign activists. Despite the local title, the Riau-based NGOs receive regular funding from the World Wildlife Fund and a Finish NGO, making it a foreign entity. Among the ranks of Jikalahari is the Riau-based leader of the PRD, who is boss to the accused perpetrator of the aforementioned premeditated murder.

Activists such as the Forest campaigner for Greenpeace, the former Executive Director for Walhi, and the media manager of Jikalahari exchange regular communications with the head of the PRD who poses as heading the Student Advocacy Riau (KAR) group. The organization has little or none visible oversight to address the militants within their ranks.

The indictment of two captured members of these militant groups will raise the question if authorities, counter terror officials, and policy officials are beginning to scrutinize the machinations of the NGOs in Sumatra. Titled by the Indonesian Government as fundamental socialists, the militants are the first recorded eco-terror, leftist militants to go on trial for a premeditated murder.

Furthermore, the story has an underlining foreign dimension as well. Foreign NGOs have long been rumored to be targeting the Indonesian Government and companies in what Sofyan Wanadi recently called a “black campaign.”   What is chilling is that in a complaint launched with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) the Rainforest Action Network, WWF Indonesia, and Greenpeace alleged the activists were genuine “community protestors.” John Vidal, from the UK Guardian, calls the fight an important struggle for civilization. It is hard to believe that these three foreign NGOs are in fact are uninformed about the nature of the militant in question since most of the activists in Riau are life-long friends and associates. And, no it is not a struggle for civilization. Despite the rhetoric by the UK-Guardian this was simply murder.

Case in point, the accused militant the U.S.-based Rainforest Action Network claimed the militant, who in 2010 served a six-month prison term for unrest and is currently serving a 1.5 year sentence for an eco-sabotage act, was identified an activist hence giving rise to the question if the non-governmental groups benefit directly from the murder? The new indictment for premeditated murder and his role in the planning and execution of the crime leaves very little room for misinterpretation.

This raises serious questions for the Indonesian Government about how deep the involvement of individual members of Jikalahari is with the militants.

The indictment, however, shows the killings were premeditated and that the individual named by the NGOs was in fact the planner of the murder. At the time of the killing the Australian ABC ran a story portraying the struggle as a fight of the community against a company.

Collectively, the NGOs and the pro-NGO media stand accused of having contributed to the death of the victim by endorsing, without checking the background of the activists who are now charged with murder, and openly supporting a militant movement.

The NGOs without doubt benefit from the allegations tainting companies and the Indonesian Government alike.  But seemingly a fact ignored by the NGOs raises the question of whether the NGO action is contributing to the aggravation of the situation that has resulted in a brutal murder in the name of activism.

For the victim, all that does not matter. Activism does kill.