JAKARTA BOMBINGS SPARKS POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES

By Andi Abussalam

Jakarta, July 17 (ANTARA) - Friday's bombings of JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta which killed at least nine people in the runup to the announcement of last week's presidential election results soon sparked speculations of political motives.

        "It is suspected that there are parties who are not satisfied with the results of the general elections. Thus, the terror attacks sparked political speculations," Burhanuddin Muhtadi of Paramadina University said in commenting on the bombings.

        He said that the motive of the mastermind was to illegitimate the winners of the recent presidential election while trying to show that party who won the contest failed to maintain national stability.

        Muhtanid made the remarks following a press conference given by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who said that the bomb attacks were committed by a terrorist group and possibly not by a known terrorist group. He said that the intelligence information also suggested that certain quarters would try to commit acts of violence over the results of the July 8 presidential election.

        He even claimed that intelligence agents had obtained information that since the April 2009 legislative election, members of a terrorist group had been practicing their marksmanship on his photo.

        According to Burhanuddin Muhatadi, such a political speculation was actually plausible because the country's terrorist networks has been crippled since the past several years. "The terrorist cells have been crushed in the past several years," he said.

        However, Vice President Jusuf Kalla refuted the assumption that the bomb attacks had links with the results of the recent presidential elections. According to the vice president, a bomb terror of this kind must have been planned for a long time as it could take months to plan it. The previous bombing incidents revealed that they were always planned for many months before the actual attacks.

        "It by no means has relations with the presidential elections. The bombers must have planned it for many months earlier. Whereas the presidential elections took place only last week," Jusuf Kalla (JK), who is also running for president with his pair Wiranto (JK-WIN), said.

        In the meantime, Probowo Subianto, who is a running mate of presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri (Mega-Pro pair) said although his camp was disappointed with the implementation of the elections, the Mega-Pro ticket had never entertained the idea of expressing its disappointment by committing violence.

        "It never crossed Megawati - Prabowo camp's mind and neither did, I believe, the JK-WIN pair to express disillusion through barbaric acts," he said.

        Based on the results of quick counts by several survey institutes, incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who is running for president with his running mate Boediono (SBY-Boediono duo) won last week's presidential polls with a lead of over 60 percent while the Mega-Pro and JK-WIN pairs trailed behind.

        Speaking in a press conference in connection with the bomb attacks on JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels, Prabowo admitted that the Mega-Pro was disappointed with the implementation of the 2009 presidential elections.

        However, it was disappointed not because it was defeated but because of the lack of transparency in the implementation of the elections such as the chaotic problem of electoral rolls.

        Therefore, he called on the people not to take the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels' bombing case to the political arena. "One must differentiate between political activities and a barbaric incident," he said.

        In the meantime, Sonny Keraf, a cadre of the Megawati-led Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) regretted Yudhoyono's statement which linked the bomb blasts with the election process.

        Keraf accused that the president's statement was an effort to find a scapegoat and to abdicate his responsibility for maintaining security.

        On the possibility that the bomb attacks were carried out by terrorists, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, who is also a senior researcher at the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI), said that the bombing could have been done by terrorists of the Nurdin M Top networks.

        After all, the bomb targets are hotels belonging to foreigners' association. He said police should be able to investigate the bombing case, to uncover its mastermind and motive.

        According to intelligence observer Andi Wijayanto in an interview with Metro TV, the bombings were likely carried out by terrorists. It has nothing to do with the election process. Friday's bombings had the same pattern as that in the past, he said.

        This time they used the election momentum where they could have a soft target but with a high impact to create the impression that Indonesia was not safe.

        After all, according to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, security and intelligence officers were being busy in safeguarding the elections, thus lacking attention on terrorist acts.

        "During the presidential elections, police and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) focused too much attention on the elections," the vice president said.

        However, he expressed confidence that police would be able to settle the problem immediately. "We hope the police would overcome it soon. Police already have the ability," he added.***4*** (T.A014/a/H-NG/a014)

        (T.A014/A/A014/A/A014) 17-07-2009 23:37:15