A Test of Indonesia’s Resilience
With regard to the current national condition, Kompas held a panel discussion titled “Indonesia, Now and Tomorrow” at the Kompas Newsroom in Jakarta on Friday (19/5). People’s Consultative Assembly speaker Zulkifli Hasan, Indonesian Academy of Science member Yudi Latif, Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Robikin Emhas and Maarif Institute research director Ahmad Imam Mujadid Rais were the panelists.
Amid the threat from the weakening social cohesion and disintegration in society, Indonesian people need to maintain optimism. The various challenges Indonesia has faced since its existence until today indicate the nation has high resilience to keep sowing unity in diversity.
However, Indonesia must not feel complacent without knowing and anticipating the present and future challenges. Several problems, such as inequality and social fragmentation due to different political views must be monitored continuously because such issues could easily be used by different interests, which eventually threaten nationhood and unity.
If the current political and social dynamics, mainly after the Jakarta gubernatorial election, and the legal case against non-active Jakarta governor Basuk Tjahaja Purnama had happenedin other countries, those countries would have collapsed. The high resilience of the people has kept Indonesia intact and strong in facing the political and social dynamics.
Indonesia’s solidness is, among other things, due to the high tolerance of Indonesian people. In this regard, the Muslim organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah are crucial assets. These mass organizations have brought color to religious life in Indonesia from time to time. They have proven to accept differences peacefully.
NU and Muhammadiyah also play important roles in propagating an Islam in Indonesia that accepts differences peacefully. Not orthodox, but heterodox or diverse. They are all helped by mass organizations.
The tradition of tolerance in Indonesia is preserved by several safety belts, such as the readiness of the people to marry without seeing ethnicity and religion. Pop culture that promotes art and music, regardless of territory and identity, also plays crucial role. As an example, dangdut music has helped us feel Indonesia-ness. With dangdut, Indonesian people from Sabang to Merauke can “click” and enjoy the same feeling.
Conservatism
However, we have to admit the challenges against the effort to maintain social cohesion in Indonesia are not simple. Recently, there has been a growing Islamic conservatism in Indonesia. It is shown through the presence of groups that have different religious interpretations from NU and Muhammadiyah.
A conservative religious interpretation is believed to have entered schools through religious mentors and models, which are not moderate. Such a situation have helped trigger intolerance and hate speech, especially in social media, against different groups.
The strengthening of religious conservatism cannot be separated from contestation of identity and structural problems economically and politically. The identity aspect is marked by the trend to get instant answers from social media and the internet on any questions about religion. While in fact, NU and Muhammadiyah leaders are careful in assessing religious teachings through study centers and readings.
Structurally, there are criticisms of civil society groups that push for pluralism. They are not optimal in giving explanations to people who face a hard life. Therefore, the civil groups need also to build synergy with groups in agricultural or in economic empowerment.
Gap
The intolerance and national problems that appeared recently can be solved in parallel. Yet, it needs extra effort due to the recent social and political dynamics. Also, the problems are too complicated.
The challenges and problems of the nation in the future result from economic problems, which produce social injustice. They can be traced to the history of Indonesia. Looking to the past, the crisis in Indonesia in 1965 was not simply because of ideological factors but also economic problems. The 1998 crisis was also triggered by economic problems. Anytime economic problems cause social gaps, everyone gets agitated.
Economic problems trigger intolerance. One piece of evidence is the Gini ratio, which stood at 0.397 in March 2016. Also, data from the global investment management firm CreditSuisse, which in 2014 showed 1 percent of the richest Indonesians controlled 50.3 percent of total financial assets and property in Indonesia. Meanwhile, based on World Bank data, 10 percent of the richest Indonesians controlled 77 percent of total wealth in Indonesia.
Solution
Ideally, religion needs to be part of a solution to such problem. Moreover, in religion there is the principle of tolerance or respect for pluralism. It is because diversity is a gift from God or sunatullah. This should drive people to work together, instead of attacking each other.
Yet, diversity can be a double-edged knife. If we wrongly use it, diversity can be a tool for destruction. If we use it correctly, it can help build civilization.
However, the religious learning of many of the people is sometimes not correct. This happens because people often learn religion from search engines on the internet not from religious leaders, who understand religion better. From here comes the belief that others are others.
Given this situation, the government should not remain idle. Letting development in many sectors slow down means sowing the seeds of conflict, which could potentially grow and expand to affect the nation’s pillars built by the founding fathers.
(AGE/GAL/IAN)