The armed forces were strong, but they aren't necessarily responsive to the civilian government. The armed forces may be arming the opposing sides in the violence in Ambon, and provoking violence, so that the military demonstrates that it is the only force that can maintain order. That way it can keep the civilian government weak. But it is also weak because there is a lack of the sense of solidarity or community at a national level that is required to maintain the strength of the state. That has been fragmented.
Sovereignty is the embodiment of a sense of national unity.
My concern is that if we damage sovereignty, we may undermine the capacity of such a state to maintain order and to protect rights. I am talking about a variety of nationalism. We have come to think of nationalism as a very nasty and dangerous force. But there are different types of nationalism. There is nationalism that reflects a sense of belonging to the tribe, to the ethnic group that seeks hegemony or seeks to protect itself against other nations.