Terror, Rumors and a ‘State of Fear’
Questions abound about whether Jakarta will see a mass of demonstrations this week. A lack of reliable information often generates rumors that multiply uncontrollably. Inherent in this scuttlebutt are stories that are larger than life. Like a zoom lens, they magnify facts to dimensions that are not proportional, leaving a worried and fearful public.
January 16, 2001
After a spate of bombs shattered the tranquility of Christmas Eve, a number of threats popped up in faraway places, and three grenades were discovered on railway lines near Bekasi. Are we living in a ‘State of Fear’? Not because of fear systematically imposed by a solid and authoritarian state, but that which arises out of the weakness of the government, out of lawlessness, out of the inability to overcome terror.
We do not know whe
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