The struggle for a nation's soul<\/p>\n
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Each weekend Adrian cringes.
\nIn the adjoining street to his house sits a large church. The
\nspace between it and his house does not shield his family from
\nthe echo of the choir praising the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n
Born out of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) education in
\nCentral Java, Adrian remains a devout Muslim while enjoying the
\nluxuries of urban living. Religion is more than a force of habit.
\nHis wife wears a head scarf, their seven year old son is enrolled
\nin an Islamic school in South Jakarta. Two kids, two cars, two
\nmaids, a doting wife and enough disposable income for family
\nvacations. It's a picture-perfect life, almost.<\/p>\n
His head is calm, but his heart is ill at ease at being
\nexposed to the weekly church homage to a God he cannot recognize
\nand a prophet he does not believe is Christ.<\/p>\n
Adrian is religious, but he is neither zealous nor intolerant.
\nHe would not \"confront\" the church and demand it shut down, not
\nthe way groups of people have forced the closure of several
\nchurches in Bandung regency, West Java.<\/p>\n
Like many Muslims, Adrian faces many personal shades of gray
\nin applying his beliefs. Ambiguities that conflict his heart with
\nhis mind. But his gut feeling tells him that angst toward
\nChristian proselytizing cannot justify anarchy in the name of an
\n\"Allah\" whom Muslims regard as \"the compassionate and merciful\".<\/p>\n
There is loathing for the Ahmadiyah sect for discounting
\nMuhammad as Islam's last prophet. Yet he feels separated from the
\nmob that attacked the sect's offices in Bogor, West Java.<\/p>\n
He strictly instills the conventional disciplines of sholat
\n(daily prayers) to his son, but feels empathy for cleric Yusman
\nRoy who faces incarceration for conducting sholat in Indonesian
\ninstead of solely in Arabic, the liturgical language of Islam.<\/p>\n
His pesantren upbringing taught him to respect Islamic
\nteachers. However, he feels something is amiss when a high
\ncouncil of clerics issues edicts damning the tolerant notions of
\npluralism.<\/p>\n
He is clear on what he believes is appropriate for Muslim
\nwomen and proud that his wife wears a head scarf. Touches of
\nannoyance arise though when he considers the prospect of a
\nbureaucrat compelling his daughter to cede to ritualistic
\nformalities the way the Padang mayor in West Sumatra has done by
\nadvocating that female Muslim students wear head scarfs.<\/p>\n
The \"greening\" of Indonesia has left many like Adrian in an
\nemotional flux. They cannot outright disagree with those reckless
\nactions -- demanding head scarfs be worn, prayers in Arabic only
\nand recognition of Muhammad as God's last prophet -- because it
\nrepresents a fundamental part of their belief system.<\/p>\n
But neither can they pardon the manner in which the issues
\nwere addressed.<\/p>\n
Despite their common belief, they worry that the propagation
\nof Islam is taking undertones of religious slavery, which
\nundermines every tenet of the religion.<\/p>\n
We must accept religious conservatism as a natural evolution
\ngiven the absolute majority of the Muslim population in
\nIndonesia. In developing societies, religion has been a
\npsychological anchor to face the drastic sociopolitical
\ntransformations brought about by globalization and democracy.<\/p>\n
For most here it is not a throwback to the past, but a
\ncatharsis for adjusting to modernity's ills arising from climatic
\nchanges in the Indonesia polity. Hence the growing popularity of
\nIslamic parties -- like the Prosperous Justice Party -- which
\nstand on issues of social justice, rather than a blatant Islamist
\nideology.<\/p>\n
For a small minority, it is all about the past. Like an old
\nman's last erection, stoking the fires of religious conservatism
\nrekindles the dying hegemony of clerics and institutionalized
\n(organized) religion. Moral authorities who would have no role in
\nthe new Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Yet, when confronted with uncertainty and perceptions of
\nsocial injustice, these two elements instinctively unite. Both
\ngripped by a sense of annihilation. The instincts of survival
\nreplace the values of tolerance with resentment.<\/p>\n
The secular state which has so far only produced injustice
\nand, until 1998, banished political Islam, becomes the enemy.<\/p>\n
Slowly the Muslim majority have begun to question the
\nsyncretism of Pancasila, reject economic egotism of the market
\nsystem, and revolt against those who would separate organized
\nreligion from the state. They forget that the separation of
\n\"mosque and state\" is not to eliminate the role of religious
\nmoralism from state life, but to avoid state holders abusing
\nreligion as a tool for manipulation.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has rarely had such a frank debate about its
\nideological precepts at the grass roots. The golden age of free
\npolitical association of the 1950s has been dormant for the last
\nhalf century. Only now is the nation again vying for its soul. In
\nessence, the furious polemic and tribulations presently raging
\ndetermines whether common sense in the future will be based on
\nexegesis and ijtihad (independent reasoning), or dogma and
\ndoctrine.<\/p>\n
It is a battle of ideas in which moderates cannot be won by
\nemploying extremists' tactics of intimidation. Neither is it a
\nsimple case of saying one is right while the other is wrong.
\nEveryone believes themselves to be on the path of righteousness.<\/p>\n
The neurosis of extreme religious conservatism can only be
\ncured through enlightenment.<\/p>\n
To prevail is to win the hearts and minds of millions like
\nAdrian. His political consciousness, and that of others like him,
\nrepresent the soul of the nation.<\/p>\n
That ultimately requires proof that secularism does not
\ndiminish religious sanctity, that pluralism reveres both
\ntraditional and modern ways of life, and that liberalism can
\nbring about forms of social justice.<\/p>",
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