Enlightenment toward national integration<\/p>\n
Regionalisme, Nasionalisme dan Ketahanan Nasional
\n(Regionalism, Nationalism and National Resilience);
\nBy Edi Sudradjat, Lance Castles, et al.;
\nNational Defense Institute and Post Graduate Studies, Gadjah Mada
\nUniversity, Yogyakarta, 1998;
\n232 pp + xii;
\nRp 6,500.<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Problems related to each race, religion,
\nculture and ethnic group in a multicultural state will always be
\nmaterial for ceaseless debate.<\/p>\n
Long before the establishment of the nation-state, each social
\ngroup within this state had its own particular value system and
\nsocial institutions.<\/p>\n
Colonialism, prompted by its own interest and needs, had
\nforcefully bound divisive attachments and kept each group under
\nits control.<\/p>\n
This was inherited by the independent state, and for many
\ncountries, cultural and political integration has been difficult
\nto achieve long after formal declaration of independence.<\/p>\n
The fact that separatism, which is also construed as negative
\nregionalism, still exists here, such as what is going on in Irian
\nJaya and some other regions, is an example of this paradox.<\/p>\n
Without any pretension to offer wise answers to the problem,
\nthis book only attempts to illustrate the complexity of a nation-
\nstate through various approaches.<\/p>\n
Contributors include Gen. (ret) Edi Sudradjat, the former
\ndefense minister and the single military representative in the
\nbook, and noted historians.<\/p>\n
The book enlightens the reader about how each social group, in
\nterms of race, religion, culture and ethnicity, should be treated
\nby the state and, eventually, by all of us, in the pursuit of
\nintegration.<\/p>\n
Editors, including Ichlasul Amal, Gadjah Mada University's
\nrenown rector, write that national integration needs the movement
\nof communal loyalty to a higher and broader level.<\/p>\n
Kinship or ethnic groups of origin should no longer be
\nconsidered the main source of status. Community members should,
\nindividually, begin to find ways to express their loyalty to a
\ncommunity of a higher status, that is, the nation.<\/p>\n
This process would be followed by the emergence of certain
\ninstitutions transferring \"the nation\" into concrete forms like
\neducational institutions, the House of Representatives, political
\nparties and the Army.<\/p>\n
Participation in such institutions should be open to all
\nIndonesians irrespective of race, religion, culture and
\nethnicity, so that each individual's effort to promote public
\nwelfare and their sense of sovereignty sharing would be realized.<\/p>\n
One of the many contributors, Lance Castles, a long-time
\nscholar and lecturer of Indonesian studies, writes that national
\nintegration should become a reality if the development of
\n\"nationalism\" is geared toward one that is integrated with
\nuniversalism.<\/p>\n
He views that the \"national culture\" and national educational
\nsystem have largely avoided abolishing ethnic diversity -- the
\nopposite to the melting pot idea.<\/p>\n
Castles says such a vision, known as multiculturalism, is now
\nalso being developed in the United States, Canada and Australia.
\nThis concept takes cultural and racial diversity as a wealth, and
\nthe target is integration (not assimilation) based on mutual
\nrespect among ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
But Castles also mentions what now inevitably sounds like a
\ndeeply disturbing warning: the face of nationalism \"which is more
\nterrifying as a segregator\" instead of a unifying factor,
\n\"leading to hundreds of thousands of victims of ethnic cleansing
\nand the evacuation of millions of others\". The book was published
\na few months before the May riots, which largely victimized
\nethnic Chinese.<\/p>\n
Mutual respect between different groups, he writes, would
\nbecome a reality only if the government is capable of
\nestablishing a civil society, which, as historian Sartono
\nKartodirdjo writes, seems to be forgotten by the government.<\/p>\n
Sartono says that the spirit of a civil society had long been
\npart of communal identity here.<\/p>\n
He writes that this spirit of equality, democracy etc.,
\nprevailed particularly after the 17th century, with the rise of
\nIslam-based kingdoms.<\/p>\n
Nationalism in the real sense, Sartono says, \"abolishes ethnic
\nboundaries\". Again we are reminded of poor ethnic relations here
\nas he refers to ethnocentrism and the victimization of ethnic
\nChinese in earlier riots.<\/p>\n
On separatism, such as in Irian Jaya and East Timor, noted
\nhistorian Taufik Abdullah believes that the mistake lies in the
\nindoctrination of inappropriate values and symbols to the
\ncommunities in these two regions.<\/p>\n
He emphasizes that the national awakening marked in history
\nsuch as with the establishment of the Boedi Oetomo organization
\nby Javanese youths are meaningless to the people in Baucau or
\nAbepura or Timika.<\/p>\n
National heroes Tuanku Imam Bonjol, of a Minang ethnic group,
\nPrince Diponegoro, who was Javanese, and Acehnese Tjut Nyak Dien,
\ndo not mean much to people in Irian Jaya and East Timor.<\/p>\n
He writes that a far more effective strategy in dealing with
\nseparatism in these two provinces is reviving their collective
\nrecollection of their joint efforts with other regions to fight
\ncolonialism.<\/p>\n
-- Celes Reda<\/p>\n
The reviewer is a student of the Yogyakarta Institute of
\nAgriculture.<\/p>",
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