Enough

Tonight Manchester United was scheduled to play a friendly pre-season game with Indonesia’s team in Jakarta during their Asia Tour. In the last month we’ve passed billboards featuring Manchester United players with the line “Mau?” (“Want?”) beneath it. TVs ads brought the same players asking the same simple question. A few weeks ago, after a half a dozen trips to a sponsoring store, I purchased tickets to the match. While the tragedy of the recent bombings surely does not lie in the fact the game was canceled, the billboards and unused tickets serve as a bitter reminder of what could have been.

On Friday morning I was negotiating a price for a motorbike ride around Malang in east Java. Just before we left, I received a text about the bombings from one of my language instructors. The messages continued throughout the morning and ranged from “It is not humane. We denounce all violence and terrorism. I hope you are always well” to “I’m so sorry, so very very sorry.” While on one hand the attacks were indeed directed at Westerners in light of the choice of hotels and timing, in many ways this feels equally to be an assault on Indonesians.

Just last week I posted about our day at the polls and the relative calm surrounding the election. I was not alone in my optimism regarding Indonesia’s presidential election. As the details of Friday’s bombings surface, it’s not entirely clear to what extent they are related to the election. But, many feel they were a desperate attempt on the part of extremists to call attention to their agenda, an agenda that appeals to few in this country, as the elections have shown. The majority of Indonesians continue to favor secular political life much to the dismay of those who would rather see Indonesia turn away from its history of pluralism toward an Islamic state. To some extent, I suppose the terrorists have succeeded in drawing the attention of the world, yet they don't have what it takes to gain support through legitimate means here. Enough is enough already.