Hate Crimes
Hate crimes are very dangerous for Indonesia. A pluralist country in many aspects of life, including race, ethnicity, culture, religion and social classes, hate crimes pose a very real and high risk for Indonesia. Unless such crimes are managed stringently, Indonesia could disintegrate.
In fact, gloomy scenarios of divisiveness in highly pluralist Indonesia has long circulated among academics as well as politicians. Yet, Indonesia’s continued unity has been regarded as a miracle among many foreign observers.
However, domestic and international political developments over the last two decades have sowed the seeds of disintegration in Indonesia. Apart from economic disparities, the potential for disintegration has increased with the growing spread of hate crimes, particularly in issues related to politics, religion, and ethnicity and race.
Indonesia has been seeing an increase in hate crimes of late, especially in relation to politics. The phenomenon of political hate crimes – in the regional elections, the legislative elections and especially the presidential election – has primarily occurred through the use and abuse of religious issues.
Social media has facilitated the increase in religious and political hate crimes. Social media is responsible for spreading hate speech, provocation and slander, especially through the use and abuse of religion. This phenomenon was very prominent during the 2019 presidential election.
Hate crimes are now expanding to race and ethnicity. Again, Indonesia – which has 1,331 (major and minor) ethnic groups according to the Central Statistics Agency’s 2010 Population Census – has high potential for the growth of negative stereotypes, prejudices and biases.
The symptoms of hate crimes regarding race and ethnicity have been increasing alongside progress in “becoming Indonesia”, which has also been growing stronger over the last two to three decades, especially due to the more equal distribution of information and scientific studies to all parts of the country – particularly through electronic media and cyberspace.
Nonetheless, as Papua Governor Lukas Enembe emphasized, “The Papuan people are not yet Indonesianized.” In other words, the process of “becoming Indonesia” has been unsuccessful or has not yet succeeded among ethnic Papuans (including the residents of West Papua).
This psychosocial behavior also seems to exist with regard to other ethnic groups, but because they are unconnected to political and economic issues, the have not surfaced.
Therefore, stereotypical views, prejudices and sociocultural biases have persisted as sources of racism, especially against ethnic Papuans. This psychosocial behavior also seems to exist with regard to other ethnic groups, but because they are unconnected to political and economic issues, the have not surfaced.
Psychosocial behavior as the source of racism is thus latent among the members of certain ethnic groups, and can flare up when a trigger suddenly appears.
This latent characteristic expands as it overlaps with the levels of civilization and culture among the diverse ethnic groups in Indonesia: A small portion of the citizenry have entered digital society, more and more people live in an industrial society, while fewer and fewer live in agrarian society, but a majority remain in pre-agrarian society.
The racial attack on a group of students from Papua and West Papua in Surabaya and Malang can presumably be understood in the context of the different contradictory phenomena. Chronologically, the racial abuse began when a several people comprising military personnel, policemen, Satpol PP (municipal public order and security officers) and members of a mass organization visited the Papuan students’ dormitory on Jl. Kalasan No. 10, Surabaya (16 Aug. 2019).
Their visit was a response to the alleged vandalism of a flagpole in front of the dormitory and discarding the Red-and-White flag that was flying on it. As they knocked on the door, some of the soldiers were reportedly addressing the Papuan students using racial slurs.
This is none other than an expression of the soldiers’ latent sociocultural prejudice.
Without prolonging the discussion, the incident that the Papua and West Papua students faced in Surabaya and Malang belongs to the category of hate crimes. Referring to the students as certain kinds of animals stems from racial, ethnic and sociocultural perceptions, misperceptions and prejudices that form the motive or basis of hate crimes.
There is also no need to recount the strong public responses to racist incident. In brief, violent protests occurred in Manokwari and Sorong, West Papua, and a peaceful mass rally was held in Jayapura, Papua.
We should feel grateful that the situation quickly returned to normal. The apologies East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa offered to Papua Governor Lukas Enembe and President Joko Widodo’s appeal for the parties involved to forgive each other succeeded in calming the atmosphere: The violence arising from the racist incident neither became protracted nor expanded to cause a serious threat the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
Yet, the threat of racism remains latent. Different factors are responsible for the latency of the very real threat of hate crimes, ranging from socioeconomic inequality, the as yet unresolved political process and sociocultural gaps, to the unfinished process of “becoming Indonesia”.
Only through cooperation between all parties can various attempts be made to prevent the latency and spread of racism.
The central government and regional administrations should therefore pursue systemic and comprehensive efforts, along with ethnic leaders, mass organizations and the public. Only through cooperation between all parties can various attempts be made to prevent the latency and spread of racism.
It is also most urgent to launch campaigns to raise public awareness of the several legal provisions that exist to prevent racism. Despite the absence of a special law on racially motivated crimes, the country already has Law No.40/2008 on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination among its legal measures to prevent hate crimes, as well as Law No. 11/2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions and a variety of criminal provisions in other laws. The legislation can be maximized collectively towards the prevention of racially motivated crimes.
AZYUMARDI AZRA, Culture and Humanities professor, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University; Member, Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI)