Education 'needs to promote pluralism'

Education 'needs to promote pluralism'

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Arguing that the New Order's legacy of intolerance is still
prevalent, an expert has suggested that it is high time for the
government to design new curricula that will promote pluralism
among students.

Sociologist Melanie Budianta said on Friday that as a result
of more than 30 years of the "selective pluralism" promoted by
the New Order, which only recognized certain groups in society,
educational institutions had been turned into vehicles for
suppressing differences in society.

The professor at the University of Indonesia said that among
the first things that needed to be done to overcome this legacy
was to draw up pluralist curricula

"Rewrite Indonesian history to allow more room for
acknowledging the contributions made by groups that have been
marginalized in cultural memory or written history," Melanie told
a two-day seminar jointly organized by the International Center
for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) and the European Union (EU).

Melanie said that history also needed to be rewritten from the
points of view of those who had fallen victim to religious or
ethnic conflicts.

She also said that in the midst of differences between
students, a new type of education was needed to facilitate
personal and cross-cultural experiences.

However, the government also had to improve the quality of the
teachers who would be tasked with relaying messages of
multiculturalism. "Even if books on multiculturalism are
produced, who can teach and use them? Our teachers still need to
free themselves from prejudices," she said.

In a country of around 300 ethnic groups and many religions,
the regime of former President Soeharto formally acknowledged
diversity, but excluded a number of groups and disowned a number
of religious beliefs adhered to by many in the community.

The government also dissuaded people from talking about
intercommunal differences (known by an Indonesian acronym as
"SARA", or ethnicity, religion, race and class), fearing that
these could spark conflicts.

Since the fall of Soeharto and the loosening of his regime's
grip on society, a series of communal clashes have shaken the
country.

Melanie also said that the media could play a role in
dismantling cultural biases and intergroup prejudices.

The Jakarta Post's chief editor Endy M. Bayuni said the media
could teach the public about how people of different religious
beliefs and from different ethnic groups could co-exist in peace.

The media, however, could also aggravate conflict, said the
head of Kompas daily's research and development department,
Daniel Dhakidae.

"There were two different newspapers owned by the same group
that were targeted at the two conflicting communities in Maluku,
and both tended to exacerbate the conflict between the two
communities," he said.

Daniel also said that the need to always seek news and promote
novelty had often led the media to sideline the issue of
multiculturalism.