Ethnic, racial and religious issues through children's eyes

JAKARTA (JP): Seven-year-old Kartika knew that the Chinese are not the same as other ethnic groups in the country. She learned the difference when her mother took her along to wedding parties -- the Chinese bride usually wears a Western gown, while the Javanese is clad in traditional outfit.

Later on, she learned more about the differences when her friends called her Cina (Chinese).

Alfonsus Arista Tefa, 13, said that when he was in the second grade of an elementary school, his friend called him Cina while laughing, sneering and pointing his finger at him "as if I was a thief caught redhanded".

"I was hurt and confused because I felt that we were good friends," Alfonsius said.

Like it or not, at an early age, many Chinese children have already faced ethnic problems that are hard for them to digest. Yet, they were ignored when they wanted their rights observed.

Until recently, that is, when the Indonesian Anti-Racism Society organized a national writing contest on SARA, an acronym of race, religion and tribal affiliations or societal groups -- for elementary school and junior high school students.

Many students described religious and racial tension in their writing very well. They cited the May riots in Jakarta, the Ketapang riots here and the Kupang incident among examples of the SARA-related problems around them.

Rembulan Indira, a junior high school student in East Jakarta, for instance, revealed that her Chinese classmate planned to seek refuge in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, after her father's store was burned down during the bloody May riots when hundreds of stores were looted and set ablaze.

Novia Rachmayanti, a sixth grade student of an elementary school in West Jakarta, still remembered how panicky and horrified she was during the May riots.

"...we were studying, suddenly the teachers told us, students of the sixth grade, to assemble in the school yard as we would all be sent home... because there were riots... which would spread in the direction of our school. Some of my friends cried in fear," she wrote on a piece of paper with the picture of Sailor Moon bottom right.

As children, all participants have their own way of expressing their opinions before getting to the main point.

A junior high school student, for example, opened his piece by saying that SARA is not the name of MTV's VJ, the main cast of the Saras 008 TV series on Indosiar, or a name of a beautiful girl next door.

It seems that many writers were well-informed about the latest developments in the country's politics, economy, social life and culture. Some students expressed their opinions fluently, using sophisticated terms, sounding very much like adults.

Dwi Avanti Indriana, a second year student of a state-owned junior high school in East Jakarta, referred to HAM dan Pluralisme Agama (Human Rights and Religious Pluralism), a book by former religion minister Tarmizi Taher, in her writing.

Yamin Prihatini, a first year junior high student in East Jakarta, who referred to Lise Funderburg's Black, White and Other, citing: "The first impression, a long-lasting one, about racism originates from parents and family. Different attitudes toward one's race can also spread as the result of suppression or bad treatment faced by a person."

Angela Hahm, a seventh grade student of the Australian International School, wrote: "Racism is part of mistrust, of jealousies and of power struggles among various groups and the most violent and barbaric conflicts are the ones that are based on religion. It seems that religion encourages people to act primitively. The people who commit these acts consider the burning of houses of worship, the killings of innocent people and other atrocities, holy deeds."

There are also pieces containing Pancasila propaganda.

Nonin Niadisti, a sixth grade elementary student in Tulungagung, East Java, wrote how the Pancasila and Citizenship Education course solved the SARA problems in her school.

It was a story about her classmate, Susi, who was bright but would not mingle with other students who were poor, had a different religion or came from a different ethnic group.

As Nonin learned that Susi's close friends started to act like her, she told them: "Friends, the teacher has taught us the Pancasila and Citizenship Education lesson with a theme of unity and unification. And until now, haven't you understood?"

In short, the story ended happily as everybody, including Susi, realized their mistakes.

And Nonin took the first prize in the elementary school category.

The top prize in the junior high school category went to Rembulan Indira.

Each of them received Rp 750,000.

The writing contest was part of the planned publication of an introductory book on SARA written by a team consisting of social and political researcher Mohamad Sobary, cultural observer Ignas Kleden, child educator Seto Mulyadi and chairman of the Indonesian Anti-Racism Society, Bambang Jatmiko. The team also performed as jury for the writing contest.

The book is to be distributed for free in five cities: Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Ujungpandang and Medan.

One could easily argue about the originality of the pieces since the organizers did not supervise the process of writing. The teachers or parents may have interfered in the writing, or even written the stories for the children. But Bambang is not worried.

"We got what we wanted, SARA in the eyes of the children. But we also see that their understanding is still superficial," he told The Jakarta Post.

"The main point of holding this contest is to make the children communicate, ask questions of their parents, or their teachers." (ste)