It’s Time to Deal with Challenges

Kompas/Lasti Kurnia

A festive scene at the Indonesian National Awakening concert at the Pluit Reservoir Park in Jakarta on Saturday (20/5/2017). The concert, held under the theme of “Uniting Spirit for One Nation and Being a Part of the Festive Awakening of Indonesia,” was filled with performances by a number of celebrities, including Once Mekel and Katon Bagaskara. Jakarta\'s acting governor, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, also attended the event.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Challenges are hitting several aspects of life within the nation and the state. The spirit of National Awakening Day serves as momentum to evaluate as well as seek a solution to problems related to justice and unity, which are stepping stones of the nation’s goals.

A survey from the Kompas research center involving 512 respondents in 14 big cities in Indonesia on May 17-19 indicates that social cohesion, which is a binding factor of Indonesia’s diversity, is facing serious problems. Respondents mostly said “weakening” when asked about the state of social cohesion, social solidarity, tolerance among followers of different faiths, tolerance among different ethnicities and tolerance among social groups.

Amid theweakening nationhood, the presence of the state or the state administration systemwas not felt. The majority of respondents said Indonesia was not an economically autonomous country and was not a country free from corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University Pancasila Study Center researcher Diasma Sandi Swandaru on Saturday (20/5) said the weakening social cohesion as shown through Kompas research center’s survey was because the common goals of Indonesia as a nation, particularly those related to the effort to protect all citizens and to bring prosperity, had not become the “business” of the state institutions. The two other national goals are to make the nation smart and to create world peace.

“Many of our people face hardship. People feel social and economic gaps,” Diasma said.

Social gap

Based on Central Statistics Agency data, the Gini ratio (income gap) per September 2016 was 0.394 or decreasing by 0.008 compared to September 2015 at 0.402. However, with a ratio of 0-1 (the higher the number, the bigger the gap), the decrease has not brought theGini ratio back to the 2007-2011 period, when it stood at 0.35-0.38.

People’s Consultative Assembly speaker Zulkifli Hasan said that diversity in Indonesia was still solid but with a high social gap, small incidences could trigger conflict.

“People who have no hopes and future are vulnerable. Given such a condition, anything could happen. If they befriend a robber, they could become a robber. If they befriend a terrorist, they could become a terrorist,” said Zulkifli during a panel discussion at Kompas on Friday last week.

Other speakers were Nahdlatul Ulama leader Robikin Emhas, Indonesian Academy of Sciences member Yudi Latif and Maarif Institute research director Abdullah Darraz.

Darraz said strengthening movements of violence and terror was one of the national challenges, as terrorist groups tend to believe in an ideology that goes against differences and diversity.

Ironically, the state has not responded toproblems at the grassroots level effectively. The House of Representatives and political parties, instead of voicing out people’s aspirations, focus more on their own interests. Society ultimately seesnothing exemplary in the actions of the elite. Corruption by the elites only widens the social gap.

Yudi Latif said today democracy lacks efficiency and legitimacy. Several surveys show the House and political parties are the most corrupt and mistrusted institutions.

From the efficiency side, the government is slow in responding to the aspirations of the people. As a result, democracy has become unreliable. “When reliability declines, the nation is in a mess. People move to find their solutions. Identity politicsand friction strengthens,” Yudi said.

Awaken

Nevertheless, this nation should not get drowned in complex challenges. The spirit of national awakening 109 years ago serves as a point of return for the nation to reflect and awaken to respond to all problems of the nation and the state in the future.

Darraz said that civil society must not stay idle. There is a need for an aligned vision to counter the ideologies that disrupt national harmony. Maarif Institute, for example, organized rallies of student diversity in Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Semarang.

Meanwhile, the National Awakening Party through National Coordination Council Garda Bangsa organized akitab kuning (Islamic boarding school book) seminar at campuses. It aimed to counter radicalism. Garda Bangsa chairman Cucun Syamsurizal said that classical Islamic teachings in the kitab kuning contributed to developing national character through learning activities at the Islamic boarding school long before the country’s independence.

The awakening of the ulemas in the past, he said, had inspired the birth of a national awakening toward Indonesia’s independence. Today, Indonesia again needs the spirit of the ulemas to strengthen the nationhood pillars.

At the same time, economic justice is also needed. Institute for Development of Economic and Finance (Indef) researcher Imaduddin Abdullah said that from an economic perspective, the economic gap occurred because of differences of productivity among individuals affected by the control of assets and human resources. An affirmative policy could be directed at solving this problem.

“An example of a physical asset is land. Currently, the Gini ratio of land is 0.68 or higher than the Gini ratio of spending. What the government could do now is carry out agrarian reform,” Imaduddin said.

However, Yudi Latif warned that economic justice was not enough to achieve unity. He said achieving unity requires positive interactions and a willingness to accept differences. Therefore, the clash of identities must be stopped. Furthermore, he said that the teaching of citizenship affairs and politics in school must be improved in a bid to strengthen national integration and to avoid social friction.

“Justice enforcement must be carried out without sacrificing unity. Thus, an affirmative policy can be done but it must not be made on the basis of ethnic and religious differences,” Yudi added.

(GAL/IVV/AGE)