simpLy m.e.

Recently, Petronas, the Malaysian petroleum company announced that it has awarded the oil exploration project to its subsidiary – Petronas Carigali and the Dutch company Shell. There was nothing wrong with that except that the area where such project is supposed to be carried out is in the area which – Indonesians believe to belong to Indonesia. Then the IT war began, from printed copies of newspapers, the newspaper online edition, chain e-mails, comments and responses in blogs, etc. The matter does not stop there, cyber war has also begun. Indonesian crackers penetrated and expressed their views on Malaysian related websites and vice-versa. Some express their ideas by cursing the action of the Malaysian Government while others are more diplomatic, they use soft-tone statements to remind the Malaysian Government that what they have done (and are doing) is wrong.

While it is not my intention to add anything further to what is happening, I plea to those people, Indonesians and Malaysians alike – not to pursue the matter in a way that will just lead to the lost to either party. As we know, the majority populations of both countries are Muslim (at least by ‘default’). Whichever country that may suffer the loss as the consequence of the other party’s action is – still – a Muslim country. At this moment, our action will reflect what people think about who we are. While none of us can ‘dictate’ or ‘direct’ others about what to do, we can do that to ourselves. Let’s show that Muslims are not “barbarian” people just like the propaganda of the western media. Let’s prove to the world that we are people of intellect, who ‘talk’ with our ‘brain’ and not merely driven by emotion.

I am not an expert in geography but from the layman’s point of view – the first glance on the map will make it clear (again I am not the expert for this matter) that the area should (clearly) belong to Indonesia and not Malaysia. Having said so, I still believe that we (Indonesians)should pursue the matter diplomatically because I am pretty sure that even Malaysians will also be embarrassed and feel sorry about what the Malaysian government has done if it is proven that the disputed area really belongs to Indonesia. (even now, I am sure those Malaysians who think with open mind would have regretted what Petronas has done)

It’s true that the matter goes deep penetrating the matter of the national pride to Indonesians – although that may warrant the “victims” (as how Indonesians feel) to retaliate – let’s do that in an intelligent manner. Almost everyone (except Bush and whoever that supporting him) consider US’s war against Iraq as a barbaric action. The action was opposed by many people from most part of the world, including Indonesia. Then, why could we, Indonesians, intend to do to Malaysia what we condemned US for having done to Iraq. Regardless of whether a party is right or wrong, when one is pushing the other to the extent that the latter is worried about its safety, the latter may take measure to protect itself against the former – even if the latter is the actual wrong-doer and we will not like it if it were to happen.

Let us take a hypothetical example. If a man intrudes to my house and try to take something valuable from the house, I do have legally and logically the right to retaliate and prevent the “thief” from doing what he is about to do. But that alone does not warrant my action, for instance, to take a gun and shoot the thief if it is apparent that the thief comes to my house armless. Even the law of most legal system requires that the act of retaliation must be proportionate, thus, it will not be acceptable to the mind of a reasonable person if one uses weapons against the thief if the thief can be chased away without the need to resort to such extreme measure.

Now let’s go further. What if the thief is actually my neighbour who does not realise that he has crossed the border and that he is harvesting (or trying to harvest) what is actually mine, can I simply take a gun and shoot him for that? What if that neighbour has been a very good neighbour for years and when I notified him that he has crossed the border – he prefers to keep our relationship in a good term that he asks me to talk about the matter, does it warrant my action if I attack him without any attempt to get the clarification from him? What if that neighbour truly believes that he has done nothing wrong at all and yet he is willing to talk about it with me and to try to settle the matter so as not to cause any embarrassment to either party as the consequence of such dispute?

Think for yourself and act accordingly. Don’t let our emotion prevail over our clear-mind and don’t let us be what the old proverb says “tong kosong nyaring bunyinya”. Silence does not turn an individual to be a “sissy” – in fact we should be careful about that as we never know what lies in the mind of such individual and what that individual is actually capable of.

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If you find the above to be interesting, you may want to read an article written by Nono Anwar Makarim at http://www.mediaindo.co.id/cetak/berita.asp?id=2005030623214904 (last visited 10 March 2005)