Fighting Against Hate Narrative
The stinging odor of hatred has permeated in discussion rooms, flowed out into debates and into interaction on social media.
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Over the last several years, our Indonesian narrative has become tainted with hate. The stinging odor of hatred has permeated in discussion rooms, flowed out into debates and into interaction on social media.
This hate narrative seems to be holding hostage the younger generation’s optimism for the future of their nation. Hatred seems to have become an endless cycle, a dark alley with no way out. Hatred continues to explode, fueled by political interests or economic competition rife with egoism.
The flames of hatred seem to have been doused with the fuel of anger, with a handful of elites engaging in political engineering in their attempt to seize power. Meanwhile, such hatred claims victims among the country’s citizens, numbering hundreds of millions.
The Wahid Foundation\'s April 2016 survey, in cooperation with the Indonesian Survey Institute, shows how hatred has become the face of our millennials. The survey points to 10 groups that have become the target of hatred in this country. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group tops the “hate list” (at 26.1 percent), followed by communists (16.7 percent), Jews (10.7 percent), Christians (2.2 percent), Shia (1.3 percent), Wahhabis (0.5 percent), Buddhists (0.4 percent), Chinese (0.4 percent), Catholics (0.4 percent) and Confucians (0.1 percent).
The survey also illustrated that 59.9 percent of respondents felt hatred toward particular groups. Of this amount, 92.2 percent preferred that government officials should not come from the groups they hated. Meanwhile, 82.4 percent did not want neighbors who were from the groups they hated. This data is a slap in the face, and shows how our characteristic hospitality has transformed into an outburst of anger.
From the survey data, 0.4 percent of respondents said they had participated in faith-related activities that involved violence, while, 7.7 percent revealed that they were ready to join a radical movement.
One interesting thing is the hatred against Jews in Indonesia. Jews have actually never surfaced on social media or other social spaces in this country. After a synagogue in Surabaya was razed to the ground in 2009 following a series of threats, the Jewish community has tended not to appear in public. Some Jews interact socially in a limited way at a synagogue in Tondano, Minahasa. Even though they rarely appear in public spaces in this country, Jews are frequently discriminated by Indonesians, especially when the Israeli-Palestinian issue flares up.
Hatred against Jews has also increased dramatically to impace the overall anti-Semitism issue. A report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also mentions the rising trend of hatred against Jews in Indonesia. The ADL survey was conducted through 53,100 interviews in 96 languages, and ranks Indonesia as having the fourth largest anti-Jewish population in Asia. We lose only to Malaysia, Armenia and South Korea.
Arrow of hatred
The narrative of hate must be countered with a narrative of peace and social engineering toward conflict resolution. It has to be admitted that the political dynamics of 2017 has shot arrows of ethnic issues and left wounds in the collective Indonesian body. Religious sermons in several places of worship were full of hatred, even after the politically charged Jakarta gubernatorial election has ended. The flames of hatred can grow very quickly, while extinguishing the anger that fuels it takes time.
The millennial generation, the younger generation of this country, must be saved from such a raging fire of hatred. Even though they may be highly optimistic about Indonesia\'s future, the views from people of different faiths still shows a need for concern, especially with regard to the targeted groups, which have been based on information from the media and social media content that frequently contains falsehoods and prejudices without any proof.
A national survey that was conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Aug. 23-30, 2017, involved 600 millennial respondents aged 17-29 across the 34 Indonesian provinces. The survey shows that our millennial generation is relatively optimistic about Indonesia\'s future, with 26.9 percent highly optimistic and 62.3 percent optimistic. Meanwhile, 52 percent of respondents disagreed with replacing Pancasila with another ideology, with 32 percent more or less supporting the idea.
In terms of interfaith interactions, the acceptance of people of different faiths remains very low. As much as 58.4 percent of respondents would not accept government leaders of a different religion, while only 39.1 percent would accept leaders who do not follow the same religion as themselves.
Defining public space
The interaction among the millennial generation, as well as across our generation, utilizes a wide variety of easily accessible social media platforms. Mobile phone users and those who actively use social media are increasing rapidly in line with the improving digital infrastructure in the country.
WeAreSocial and Hootsuite 2017 data show that the number of internet users in the country grew 51 percent (May 2017). This is a significant figure, and the largest in the world. Internet users number 132 million, of which 40 percent are avid social media users. The number of social media users has increased by 39 percent from the previous year.
Then, what should be done to counter the hate narrative? It is absolutely necessary to take a firm stance against hate through a narrative of peace and by nurturing our diversity. The heart of our Indonesian-ness must be infused with the blood of optimism and be oxygenated with peace. This is the key to producing creative content while at the same time, ignoring deliberately engineered hoaxes so that they do not become "trending topics" or viral. The efforts of the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) would not be maximal if they focus only on technological devices without touching upon the resources of our young generation.
Therese Tierney in The Public Space of Social Media (2013) argues how to create significant interactions on social media to improve interpersonal communication. Tierney proposed how to design cities, as well as public spaces, in offline and online interactions. Tierney\'s view is based on using social media and digital devices effectively to define public spaces that have an Internet-based communication platform.
Defining the public sphere of our Indonesian-ness is important as a space for interactions of peace, tolerance and diversity within the spectrum of inter-citizen communication. A public space that is built upon healthy communication, with a nutritional intake of intellectuality and literacy, is sought wholeheartedly so that hatred is not reproduced as a dark corridor to the palaces of power.
Munawir Aziz
Publishing & Media (LTN) Deputy Secretary, Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board
