Human beings are not good or bad

No, Muslims are not more peaceful than Christians. Also Muslims have been sometimes aggressive. One of the most important genocides in human history happened in 1915 against the Armenians in Turkey. Not long ago a man who converted to Christianity in Kuwait was sentenced to death and I could give countless more examples.

I think any discussion in which the two religions claim to have the higher moral standard is senseless because the answer does not exist. Both religions promise paradise and both have sent many people there.

Concerning Israel, Kosovo and Chechnya, it has been said that cultural and linguistic differences are the main reasons for the conflicts, not religion. In the West, sympathy is overwhelmingly with Kosovo and Chechnya because they are the underdogs.

In Ireland both parties have the same color, the same way of living, the same way of eating, the same way of loving their wives and children and they speak the same language, why for heaven's sake do they hate each other.

I consider the situation in Maluku as very similar and understanding Ireland might bring me automatic comprehension about the Indonesian situation. I think that people in Ireland do not hate each other because they venerate the same God in different ways but that, but because of their different circumstances. The innate aggression of human beings can become a free hovering hate which, detached from its origin, gets attached to a new destination.

The Dutch described the Indonesians as zachtaardig (soft character), then why this violence? Violence such as in Maluku needs a detonator, sometimes in the press it is supposed to be persons acting for materialistic or political reasons or, of course, power. I think rather of a neurotic origin.

Human beings are not good or bad. They are both. Human beings are not peaceful or aggressive. They are both. External circumstances can make a kind neighbor into a man who hates because he does not know where to go.

I almost pitied the man from Kalimantan when I read in The Jakarta Post last year his complaint that he did not know what to do with his hate when the people from Madura had gone.

After acceptance of the fact that hate can have an obscure origin, the question is, what is the reason for the riots in Indonesia?

For more than 30 years Indonesia was ruled with an iron hand. Indonesians were afraid and stood in awe of the supreme authority far away. If I remember correctly, it was Napoleon who said "when they are afraid of me they will love me". Indonesians had no alternative and were tolerant because they had no choice. That is not the same as zachtaardig.

The freedom of the press after Soeharto's resignation revealed the reality and the Indonesian people felt in a vacuum. They understood that they had been betrayed and once liberated, suppressed hatred forced its own way. Because the hatred could not be directed toward its real target, it rebounded in different directions, those who were in the field of fire were there by accident.

The only solution is for the Indonesian people to feel the strong and steady hands of the helmsman. As these should be, at the same time, democratic hands, it will not be easy.

I am convinced that this is the right approach, but surely it can be further developed and possibly improved. In science, intuition is mostly the beginning of new understanding. Unfortunately, in psychology, it cannot be proven mathematically; we have to grope for our truth.

MARTINUS GROENENDIJK

Ubud, Bali