World misinformed about RI<\/p>\n
By Lance Castles<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): The international community has expressed
\nconcern over religion-related conflicts in Indonesia but they
\nneed to know more about what has really happened in the country.<\/p>\n
The World Council of Churches (WCC), at its last assembly in
\nZimbabwe's capital city of Harare, for example, listed Indonesia
\nas one of the worst countries in the world for interreligions
\nconflict.<\/p>\n
The mass media carried reports in their Dec. 24, 1998,
\neditions saying: "RI ranks world's worst for religious
\ndisharmony"; "Indonesia became the central topic of the WCC
\ncongress"; "They expressed concern over... political oppression
\nof religious minorities" and "The government... just let things
\nhappen... on the basis of the pattern of riots such as in
\nKetapang, Kupang, Ujungpandang, etc, we are looking at well-
\norganized crimes".<\/p>\n
The U.S. Congress, under a draft law, also threatened to
\nimpose sanctions on Indonesia if its government did not protect
\nits people (read: Christian people) adequately from religious
\npersecution.<\/p>\n
In the past 32 years, 516 churches have been damaged,
\nincluding 415 in the last 30 months. During the first seven
\nmonths of President B.J. Habibie's reign alone, 45 churches were
\ndamaged -- representing an average of 6.3 churches per month, as
\ncompared to 16 per month in Soeharto's last two years of
\npresidency.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that most of the attacks on churches
\ninvolved only the breaking of windows and smearing of paint.
\nUnless a church was made of inflammable timber or contained
\nvaluable objects that could be destroyed or stolen, there was not
\nmuch else that attackers could do.<\/p>\n
But the morally heroic WCC was apparently more attracted to
\nthis, rather than the case of Bosnia, where over 200,000 Muslims
\nare supposed to have been killed in cold blood, the case of
\nSudan, where a prolonged, bloody civil war is being fought over
\nthe enforcement of the syariah on non-Muslims .<\/p>\n
Compare this to Indonesia, where the majority of political
\nparties are vigorously rejecting the enforcement of religious law
\n-- the case of Lebanon, where during the civil war to have the
\n"wrong" identity at a roadblock meant instant death, Iran, where
\nreportedly the top leadership of the Baha'i community has
\nrepeatedly been liquidated or Pakistan, where a bishop committed
\nsuicide to protest the anti-blasphemy law under which the death
\nsentence is mandatory and leading Sunni and Shiite figures are
\ngunned down in sectarian killings.<\/p>\n
And did they remember the case of Punjab, where probably more
\nthan a million died when the British left just because they were
\nMuslim, Hindu or Sikh?<\/p>\n
Just what are the facts behind this international
\nstigmatization on Indonesia?<\/p>\n
Nothing whatever. It is true that at the beginning of the war
\nof independence, there were people (priests at Muntilan, a small
\ntown near Borobudur Budha temple) who were killed purely because
\nthey were Christians. But most of the victims were those regarded
\nas working for the Dutch, such as being suspected as spies,
\nemployees of the Dutch regime or even those who seemed
\nconspicuously European in their way of life.<\/p>\n
Since then, it is impossible to name any person who was killed
\njust because he was Christian. In a riot in Situbondo, East Java,
\na family died tragically in a burning church just because they
\nwere afraid to face the mob outside. But if they had gone out,
\nthey probably would have been safe, as the crowds were not
\nmurderous.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Muslims know perfectly well that Christian worship,
\nthough based in their view on an erroneous understanding about
\nJesus, is absolutely guaranteed under the Islamic law.<\/p>\n
What about a number of Ambonese killed during the Ketapang
\nrioting in Central Jakarta? They were condemned for operating an
\nimmoral establishment, not for being Christian.<\/p>\n
What about the accusation that the government does not protect
\nChristians? This is a fallacy. No government, no matter however
\nwell organized, can protect citizens and their property from
\nrandom acts of violence. It is impossible to have armed police
\nofficers guarding all the churches and all the parishioners all
\nthe time.<\/p>\n
The fact that this is constantly being said in the media, also
\nby people who are not thinking of the protection of minorities,
\nsimply reflects the current dominance of the oppositionist
\ndiscourse according to which the government never does anything
\nright. But readers or viewers should realize that there is an
\nirreducible minimum of random or background violence in every
\nsociety which no government can prevent.<\/p>\n
Many Christians are obsessively worried that since the rise of
\nthe Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), they
\nare being discriminated against. If one points to the large
\nnumber of Christians in important positions, they claim that they
\nhave to work twice as hard as a Muslim to get such a position.
\nMuslims likewise see Christianization everywhere and refer to the
\nlong period of oppression they suffered under "Center for
\nStrategic and International Studies (CSIS) domination".<\/p>\n
The fact is that the Christians cannot show that they are
\nunderrepresented significantly in any area of national
\nleadership, while "proportionalization" which Muslims claim they
\nare practicing, is perfectly politically correct, under the name
\nof "affirmative action".<\/p>\n
In Indonesian history, there has never been a Cabinet in which
\nChristians were not represented disproportionately. The last two
\nCabinets are exceptions, with only one or two Christians. But it
\ncan be predicted that they will be well represented in the next
\nlineup.<\/p>\n
Curiously, it is probably easier to show that there have been
\nmore victims of Catholic fanaticism than Muslim. There were
\nseveral instances in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, and East Timor,
\nwhere people were killed on the spot because of perceived
\nblasphemy, usually desecration of the host.<\/p>\n
A non-Catholic going to Mass out of curiosity, for example,
\nwas given the wafer and then, apparently becoming afraid
\nsuddenly, spit it out or crushed it underfoot. The person was
\nthen beaten to death by an enraged mob. Such an incident has
\noccurred more frequently in Flores than in East Timor and the
\nvictims have more often been Protestants than Muslims.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless there have been, at least, three instances where
\nangry Christians burned Muslim kampongs -- at Pante Makassar in
\nOkusi Ambeno, where East Timorese imagined a priest had been
\ninsulted, at Kupang in West Timor, and previously at Ende,
\nFlores. In the last-mentioned case, the desecrator was sent to
\nthe police for legal process. But when the sentence, regarded as
\nmaximum punishment under Indonesian law, was announced, enraged
\nfollowers of Jesus regarded it as trivial, rioted and burned the
\nhomes of Muslims in the neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
It is understandable that East Timorese should resent
\nimmigrants, while Muslims in East Nusa Tenggara, like those in
\nthe Dayak region of Kalimantan, are perceived as exclusive and
\nmoney-oriented, unwilling even to take the hospitality of a non-
\nMuslim local.<\/p>\n
Of course, such refinements are unknown to political consumers
\nall around the non-Muslim world, who firmly believe that
\nIndonesia is the land of government-sponsored terrorism,
\nmassacres, religious and racial persecution and organized rape.
\nIt is all very mysterious and depressing.<\/p>\n
Recently we have been saddened by the senseless bloodshed and
\ndestruction on Ambon, an island with a reputation for
\ninterreligious harmony. It is nearly always depicted as Christian
\nversus Muslim violence, though the evidence points to the
\npoliticization of the issue of immigration from South and
\nSoutheast Sulawesi as the root of the problem. But in any case,
\nit does not alter the general point that interreligion relations
\nare generally good.<\/p>\n
It is necessary to note that, at least, 10 times as many
\npeople died in similar hostilities between the Dayak and Madurese
\nin West Kalimantan two years ago. This was almost invariably
\nreferred to as "ethnic strife", even though the adversaries
\nbelonged to different religions. In fact, the recent strife in
\nthe Singkawang, Kalimantan, area has been between immigrant
\nMadurese and locals, but they are equally Muslim and Malay.
\nPerhaps, we can only hope that a newly elected government with
\nunchallengeable legitimacy will be able to bring calm to such
\nareas.<\/p>\n
Dr. Lance Castles is a visiting lecturer of political sciences
\nat Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. He has written a number
\nof books on Indonesia, including Indonesia, Political Thinking
\n1945-1965."<\/p>\n
Window: Indonesian Muslims know perfectly well that Christian
\nworship, though based in their view on an erroneous understanding
\nabout Jesus, is absolutely guaranteed under the Islamic law.<\/p>",
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