In The Truth Lies Our Strength
The Intelligence Committee of the United States Senate recently released a report detailing brutal techniques the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used to its detainees. Unsurprisingly, these techniques have provoked anger around the world. While many in Indonesia have condemned the practice, an even bigger issue seems to escape attention. Why did the committee release the report, and what can we as a country learn from it?
There are at least three aspects of this episode of American politics that are relevant to us. First, the importance of political pressures from civil society and the electorate on political actors. That the release of the report was delayed for a long time indicates the magnitude of political battles behind it. In fact, soon after the report was published, some Republican senators released their own that focuses more on commending CIA than condemning the torture itself.
Why then the committee released the report? It must be noted that the committee’s chair is a Democrat and the report was mainly compiled by Democrats. As the party of civil rights, a non-trivial portion of the Democratic electorate is composed of minority and civil rights groups that are concerned with issues like this. This human rights-oriented electorate arguably puts pressure on their representatives to act and thus teaches us here in Indonesia that politics can bring change. It is not always dirty. It can be reliable if responsible voters elect responsible representatives.
Second, the U.S. is notable for its zeal to oversee. This spirit of oversight, although certainly not without its ups and downs, applies not only to governmental branches but also to national security institutions. This is important because too often in our country security apparatus such as national police, military, or intelligence community cite national security reasons to get away from questionable actions.
While security apparatus are needed to guard the people in the same time as they are needed to keep an eye on the same people to make sure they do not violate the laws, a question always lingers on who should keep an eye on the guardians? Acts like what the Senate Intelligence Committee did would leave some of the guardians feel like being thrown under the bus. But they are nonetheless necessary to send clear signals that no person or institution is above the law, including and especially those to whom we entrust great coercive force.
Lastly, difficult acts in difficult times like the release of the report tell a lot about what kind of nation we are, more than what is literally written in our constitution and definitely more than what we advertise about ourselves. The American leaders’ spirit when responding to the report is retrospective, “Is this really us?” They do not have to ask that question. They could have rug this chapter of American history under the carpet and move on. But they do.
We, too, as a nation have dark chapters. In 1965-1966 we murdered at least 500,000 people just because we suspected them as communists. Less than 20 years ago, in 1998, we not only kidnapped and murdered more than a dozen pro-democracy activists, but also burned shops and raped sisters of our fellow citizens just because they have a different skin color. Still, less than a year ago and still happening now, many of our brothers and sisters have difficulties praying just because we deem them non-mainstream.
For these episodes, and for many undocumented others, have we tried to look back and ask, “Is this really us?” Unfortunately, we have not. Most troubling perhaps, some of us might look back and say, “This is us and this is okay.” Only once we acknowledge these dark episodes can we as a nation move forward. An acknowledgment of wrongdoings is not the same as personally blaming individuals who committed the acts. In fact, a true acknowledgment is one that admits that these individuals became perpetrators not because they were evil, but because the system made them so.
Lies beget lies and cover ups lead to cover ups. Pretending that nothing is wrong with our own dark episodes would deny our need to significantly change our nation’s paradigm on civil rights. It is true that on every mentioning of the need to open the truth some would say what Jack Nicholson says in A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth!” These people cannot be right. If we are truly mature as a nation, we can handle whatever truth there is. And in that truth lies our strength.(*)
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