This is a comment from the website to the online article published on
Dec. 30, 2011 titled “SBY must learn from Gus Dur on religious
conflicts: Activist”.
Gus Dur (former president Abdurrahman
Wahid) is an excellent role model when it comes to peace and harmony in
the Indonesian community. He understood how the disadvantaged and
minority groups felt and he understood that recognizing them and their
belief systems and culture was an important step in their integration
into a cohesive but never the less multicultural Indonesia.
Restoring
the dignity of the Chinese minority was quickly improved by elimination
of at least the formal discrimination imposed by Soeharto, for example,
removing the prohibition of Chinese script publications and the ban on
the lion dance.
In Papua, Gus Dur was the first Indonesian
president to gain the respect of the indigenous Papuans because he
himself showed them respect and gave them recognition. He agreed to them
establishing a Papuan council and he agreed to their flying their
Morning Star flag, providing it was always flown alongside the national
flag – a brilliant move and one which accords with international
experience in such situations.
Unfortunately, the good that Gus
Dur did in Papua quickly unraveled when the military pushed Megawati
Soekarnoputeri into reversing the Gus Dur initiatives and the military
approach to Papua has persisted ever since and relations between Papuans
and the rest of RI have continued to deteriorate.
Had SBY not
also been a captive of the military, he could have taken the lead from
Gus Dur and taken up where he left off. But alas, the military controls
SBY policy in Papua.
Indonesia seems destined to cascade from
one round of religious intolerance to another. The intolerance and
discrimination against Christians is ongoing. The Muslim mainstream
groups seem bent on faith cleansing and turning their sights on any sect
that they deem heretical.
First the Ahmadiyah, now the Shiites.
But if attacks upon the Shiites is allowed to continue unchecked by the
government, it is a much more dangerous issue with far greater
international consequences than the attacks on Ahmadis.
Unless
the President is prepared to show some real leadership and not be guided
by his very partisan Minister for Religious Affairs, the situation is
likely to deteriorate with even greater conflict. It will be another
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned” scenario.
To eliminate the
current trend toward religious intolerance, it is essential that there
is good pluralist leadership of the Gus Dur style. Authoritarian
dictators of the Soeharto style only send the issues underground.
At
the present we have neither pluralist leadership showing the way for
maintenance of traditional Indonesian tolerance nor, fortunately, do we
have the authoritarian dictate. We have a vacuum which is being
exploited by religious zealots.
We don’t need another Soeharto or indeed any president with a military mind-set. We do need another Gus Dur style leader.
Indonesia is drifting.
Nairdah
Jakarta