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Aceh leader asks troops to stay
The Sydney Morning Herald, January 14, 2005IMO, this is Page 1/WOT stuff because, if handled right, our natural acts of compassion will erode a reservoir the islamofascists would like to draw upon. The acting governor of Aceh has asked foreign troops and aid workers to stay and provide "long-term support" for victims of the tsunami despite growing pressure from the Indonesian Government for all foreign troops to leave by the end of March. *snip* His remarks are strongly at odds with those of Indonesia's Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, who said on Wednesday that foreign forces should leave Indonesia by the end of March, three months after the tsunami struck and killed as many as 130,000 people in Aceh and made at least 300,000 homeless. *snip* Although thousands of bodies still lie in Banda Aceh's streets and work has barely begun on the refugee camps set to house 400,000 people, there are growing calls within the Indonesian Government for an even quicker departure of foreigners. The push to get foreign troops out fast is partly driven by nationalist politicians and the military. But according to some Westerners close to the Government, the deadline and new requirements for aid workers to register and report to authorities are an attempt by Jakarta to regain control over the aid effort. FWIW, IMO what's going on in Aceh is very complex. At a minimum two main elements, and a host of others, are in play. You've got an aggressively autonomy seeking province in dire need of international aid, and that aid could be used by those forces in Aceh to advance the province's drive toward independence. As I've noted previously (see link), "the politicians of Indonesia are keenly aware that any move toward autonomy on the part of any subculture/people group (including islamofascists) could precipitate a cascade of seditionist autonomy seeking that would result in the very dissolution of the nation. Cohesion is king -- naturally leading to some paranoia and (at times) flat out abusive tactics." So, the central government is going to be more than just a bit wary about how aid is distributed in Aceh. ALSO, as a separate issue, you have the islamofascist elements in Indonesia and in Aceh (a large subset of the Textual Muslimin, 12% of the overall population) that are being shown up by the compassion of the Judeo-Christian West. They want us out of there yesterday. They wish we'd never even shown up in the first place. They'd rather see everybody dead, with the few living being told that the disaster was the wrath of their god for people not being islamofascist enough. The Textual Muslimin faction tends to give the impression that our generosity in Indonesia is going unappreciated, and they love to appeal to the nationalist interests of the rest of the Indonesians -- just like the LLL here likes to talk about "values." HOWEVER, THE TEXTUAL MUSLIMIN ARE JUST A FRACTION OF THE INDONESIAN POPULATION. The majority of Indonesians are going to be very appreciative of the help given by the West, even while wary of 1) events that may undermine national unity, and 2) events reminiscent of colonialism. THIS IS THE WEST'S FINEST HOUR, AND ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS LIVE OUT OUR VALUES, AND IGNORE ALL THE B*!!SH!T. Of course we won't colonize, that's not our nature. Our values mesh well with those of the Abangan and Priyayi, and are not at odds with the Syncretic Muslimin.More foreign troops are arriving in Aceh, with the Australian supply ship HMAS Kanimbla reaching Banda Aceh yesterday with about 400 troops and earthmoving equipment. Indonesia's Welfare Minister, Alwi Shihab, who is co-ordinating the relief effort, told Al-Jazeera television yesterday that Indonesia expected to have enough infrastructure in place before the end of March. He said some people in Jakarta were worried about having soldiers from so many nations in Aceh. *snip* Posted by: cingold 2005-01-13 |
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