Amika Wardana
The recent escalation of acts of violence perpetrated by some hard-line Islamic groups coupled with the police’s failure to protect the minorities has resulted in disgrace for all Indonesians, regardless of their religion.
The country’s reputation as a predominantly Muslim peaceful society with a high degree of tolerance whence people with different religions and ethnicities live side by side has come under the question as to what kind of tolerance is actually practiced in Indonesia.
To answer that question, it is better for us to understand a bit the contour of Indonesian society in general. Thanks to John S. Furnivall (1948) for his classic analysis of pre-colonial Indonesian society that refers to Indonesia as a “plural society”, where people live side by side but separately, mingle in the same neighborhood but do not blend or belong to the same motherland but do not share common social-political goals.
Most importantly in this analysis, individuals are described as living in ethnically and religiously segmented communities with limited interactions except for economic activities.
Although not identical, religious tolerance in contemporary Indonesia seems to reflect Furnivall’s description.
Tolerance tends to simply mean living together in an area, sharing the same social space, allowing others/minorities to remain different as long as it does not destabilize the majority or running rhetorical inter-community/faith dialogues but maintaining such strict religious boundaries, limiting the rights of minorities and embracing a different political vision in which some might agree to promote a religiously-neutral secular democracy while others keep dreaming of a religiously Islamic state.
This kind of tolerance can be identified as the “tolerance of fear”, adopted from Jacob Levy’s (2000) term “multiculturalism of fear”. The tolerance of fear situates followers of the majority religion to recognize the presence of adherences of different religions but keep an eye on the activities of members of minority religions for alleged proselytization or missionary programs.
Simply put, the recognition of religious differences is overwhelmingly combined with the continuous reproduction of fear of losing fellow congregation through conversion.
Additionally, in the tolerance of fear, the majority is aware of the sovereignty of the secular democratic country, which tends to be religiously neutral and treat the entire population equally with respects to their religious differences.
Hence, rather than directly challenging state power; in order to anticipate their fear, they make attempts to manipulate state rules for the benefits of their own group even though it may violate the legitimate rights of minorities enshrined in the Constitution.
Those characteristics are generally illustrated in current religious life in Indonesia. As the guardian of Islamic faith, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has tried to hamper religious tolerance by banning the idea of religious pluralism in one of its fatwas (edicts). The council only acknowledges plurality of religions adhered by Indonesians but theologically restricts the understanding in a narrowed definition between right or wrong; believers or infidels; Islam or kafir.
The depiction of other religions always looks unsympathetic as it considers them an immanent threat to the purity of Islamic faith. By doing so, the MUI by no means has reproduced fear in the hearts and minds of every Muslim of potential attacks from members of other religions.
In the case of Ahmadiyah and/or other non-mainstream sects in Islam, MUI seems to react with much more harsh actions by condemning them with heresy, a religiously authoritarian and despotic act which in the past ended with a death sentence for those found guilty.
To some extent, having considered this case an internal Muslim matter, the MUI seems to think that the idea of religious tolerance is not necessary to be implemented. Its silence or lack of empathy for the victims of the recent deadly attacks targeting Ahmadiyah in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten, is a display of conservatism and arrogance.
At the political level, the blind support of many Islamic organizations against a judicial review sought for the 1965 Law on the Prevention of Blasphemy at the Constitutional Court last year can be understood as part of the efforts of the Muslim majority to maintain a legal back-up from the state.
Again in the case of Ahmadiyah, the 1965 law has become the reference for the 2008 joint-ministerial decree that bans the Ahmadiyah from propagation activities. The prohibition has often been arbitrarily interpreted as forbidding the Ahmadis from practicing their religious beliefs in their own mosques. The interpretation of the decree in the field violates the Constitution, which protects freedom of religion and the right to worship.
Another form of the fear is evident in the full-support from the Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali, for a 2006 joint-ministerial decree on construction of houses of worship, which is in practice is intended to limit the growth of churches, temples or viharas.
The decree by no means discriminates against members of minority religions as citizens, despite the fact that the Constitution says all Indonesian people have an equal right to practice their religious beliefs peacefully.
Nevertheless, to understand this tolerance of fear, we also have to be critical of the fact that some members of both majority and minority religions try to challenge the national/local inter-religious harmony.
The provocation initiated by an individual such as Antonius Richmond Bawengan, who circulated books and leaflets deriding Islam and Catholicism, is very disappointing.
To sum up, the practice of religious tolerance in this country faces daunting challenges from many sides. Members of both majority and minority religions must be aware of the vulnerability of Indonesian society to religious-related conflicts. The spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (unity in diversity) requires the state to treat every citizen equally regardless of their religion.
The writer, a lecturer at the Yogyakarta State University, is pursuing PhD degree in sociology at University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
— JP
No comments:
Post a Comment