Struggles to Bring Diverse People Closer Together
Yuyu Rahayu
Indonesia is a country full of diversity. Harmony and mutual respect become inevitable. Together with other people in her neighborhood in Bandung, West Java, Yuyu Rahayu, 61, strives to make harmony and mutual respect last.
Yuyu walked quickly to the RW 012 community unit hall in Babakan sub-district, Babakan Ciparay district, Bandung, in late May 2017. A few women from her neighborhood were already there. Without wasting any time, she swiftly unfolded a floor mat and spread it out on the 5-meter-by-10-meter floor.
“There will be a meeting between locals, munggahan to greet the fasting month. Everyone is invited, regardless of their religion and backgrounds, to eat together,” Yuyu said.
It was not just empty talk. Soon, residents arrived one by one. Some were Javanese, others were Sundanese or Chinese, and all were from diverse religious backgrounds – Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, Hindus and Buddhists. Various dishes, including fried chicken, tofu, karedok (vegetable salad with peanut dressing), lalapan (vegetable salad with chili sauce) and es cendol (shaved ice with rice-flour jelly and palm sugar), were already waiting for them.
“All of these are the hard work of local residents. We usually do this every year ahead of the Ramadhan fasting month. We celebrate by eating together,” she said.
Throughout the get-together, Yuyu was busy making sure everything was going as planned. Together with the other women, she distributed cups of es cendol to all guests. She also took her time to talk with almost everyone who came to make sure they had eaten.
The occasion was for more than just idle chitchat, as those who attended also gave voice to ideas on enhancing community awareness. “Mr. Police Chief, please tell us,what are the common characteristics of terrorists? So that everyone here knows,” Yuyu asked the head of the Babakan Ciparay Sub-Precinct Police, Comr. Edy Kusmawan, who attended the get-together.
Edy explained the unpredictable behavior of terrorists, that they typically lacked openness,did not mingle with other residents, and they had busy lives that were unknown to those around them.
“In neighborhoods like RW 012 here, I think terrorists would not be able to remain unidentified for long. The residents are so close to each another, regardless of ethnicity and religion,” Edy said, to a burst of applause from those gathered.
Village of tolerance
At the same occasion, Babakan Ciparay district head Momon Ahmad Imron also praised the harmony among RW 012 residents. Despite their coming from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, everyone was neighborly wtih everyone else.
“The condition is great here. I wish everyone in the district could be like this,” Momon said.
The appreciation is not just empty talk. In RW 012 in Babakan, three houses of worship stand next to each another: Al Amanah Sumber Sari Mosque stands side-by-side with Gandarusa Catholic Church and the Buddha Cakrawala Dharma Indonesia Foundation.
Apart from these houses of worship in a row, each and every worshiper is filled with love. They live together in a spirit of solidarity, mutual respect, and mutual help. It is no wonder that the Bandung administration named the district “Tolerance Village” two years ago.
Nerej, 35, a Hindu resident of Indian descent, said that he felt this closeness. His neighbors always accepted his invitation to dine together whenever he celebrated the holidays of his religion.
Leonard Lumi, 62, a Catholic, said that of the nine to 11 cows slaughtered on Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice), non-Muslim residents usually donated two to three cows.
Furthermore, every Saturday night, residents take turns in the neighborhood watch to patrol RW 012. Those on the watch gather at the RW 012 community hall three hours before their shift at 11 p.m.,to eat dinner and share small talk. “The neighborhood watch has an important role. This is our neighborhood, which means that we have to guard it together. Here, I feel this is what Indonesia is all about,” Leonard said.
Yuyu has a huge role behind her neighbors’ solidarity. Leonard said that before Yuyu started serving as RW 012 head in 2008, it was as though the people of the community walked together, but separately. “We knew one another’s faces and names, but we were not close. It was very different from today, when we feel like brothers and sisters,” Leonard said.
Yuyu has lived in the neighborhood since 1986. However, as her husband Endan Suhendar, 64, worked at a bank, she relocated several times over the years, following his work as he was transferred to places like Garut, Bandar Lampung and Padang.
It was only in 2005, when her husband was transferred to Bandung, that Yuyu decided to put down her roots in the Dian Permai Residential Complex of RW 012. As the community was not closely knitat the time, Yuyu dreamed of bringing them closer together. “The first ones to know about and to help us in times of need are our neighbors. We couldn’t ignore each other forever,” said the grandmother, who smiles easily.
Tontine gatherings (arisan) among the neighborhood women were her first strategy to bring her neighbors closer together. She also often urged her neighbors to pay their last respects to residents who had passed. Finally, the community asked her to serve as the head of RW 012 in 2008. Yuyu is now in her third term as community unit head, which is selected every three years.
“Many told me that I should just serve as community unit head for life,” Leonard interrupted, at which Yuyu simply laughed.
Apart from the women’s ton tine gatherings, Yuyu has a special “recipe” for bringing people closer. As community unit head, she refused to sign any request from residents without them meeting with her first. “It used to be that many residents just paid someone to meet with me to process their ID cards. I insisted that the residents had to come here and meet directly with me. It’s free. How can it be that a community unit head does not know her residents and the residents do not know their community unit head?” Yuyu said.
Her efforts were not without challenges. She faced residents who jeered at her and rejected her efforts. Through her approach to bring people together, however, everything changed. Those who doubted her before now support her whole heartedly.
Childhood experience
Yuyu said that her continued efforts to establish relationships with people around her were inseparable from her childhood experience. Raised in Purwakarta, West Java, she was used to respecting and sharing with those around her.
She remembered how, at school, her religion teacher taught her to maintain a life of harmony within religious and ethnic diversity. Differences were not an excuse not to be good to others, no matter what their backgrounds.
“In Islam, there is the saying: Rahmatan lilalamin. It means, more or less, that we must grace and bless all that is around us, as much as we can,” Yuyu said.
Day slowly turned into dusk. The get-together reached its end. The residents refolded the floor mats and cleaned the plates. However, the effort to bring diverse people closer together was not over for Yuyu and other residents. That same day, they were preparing for another act of diversity.
“It so happens that one of our neighbors, a Confucian, has just died today. We will go pay our last respects,” Yuyu said.
The intention of Yuyu and other residents of RW 012 Babakan to reinforce their solidarity within their prevailing differences is proof that Indonesia is still home to diversity. It serves as a restful shade in the heatwave of rising tensions in the country.
