Old pledge a lesson

It is disheartening to learn that thousands of students in a Jakarta school had to miss many days of their classes this month because of a religious dispute. We are talking about the Sang Timur Catholic School, Tangerang, which was blockaded for three weeks by two groups of residents calling themselves the Karang Tengah Islamic Communication Forum and the Islam Youth Front because the school had been used for Sunday sermons.

We picked up this case because today is the 76th anniversary of Youth Pledge Day, a day when more than two dozen youths from different ethnic groups and religious denominations conferred in Jakarta (then Batavia) and declared the "one country, one nation and one language" of Indonesia. It was a revolutionary thing to do under the Dutch colonial government, 17 years before Indonesia was born. What would the youths have to say today about the school saga? If religious differences among them was not important then, why should it matter today?

The Constitution guarantees believers the right to practice their religions and yet law enforcement officers appeared to be reluctant to address the crime. Constructing a two-meter wall at the entrance gate of the school, thereby barring students from kindergarten to high school level from classes, is definitely an illegal action.

Thankfully there are people like Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, a former president and a respected Muslim scholar, and, Seto Mulyadi, chairman of the National Commission for Child protection, who went to the school in search of a solution. Although Gus Dur was booed by the residents, his visit was a display of great moral courage not many leaders show today. With the wall demolished, the students are now back at the school although the situation is still tense.

The wall had already been erected when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono underlined the importance of pluralism in his inauguration speech.

Seventy-six years is a long time indeed, but perhaps not so long for building a nation. In any conflict, it takes two to tango. If one party has grievances so much so that it resorts to action, the other party should withdraw and make a reflection. Perhaps it has done something in the past that might have been construed as offensive.

It appears the students of the Sang Timur school had been defensive and held their emotions in check. We also commend the angry youths from both sides for containing an incident in the school compound. In the absence of state officials' intervention, the two disputing parties somehow managed to restrain themselves. It now looks like a sort of cooling-off period is taking place.

Now that the students have returned to their school, we should not allow ourselves to be overly discouraged by the incident. In a pluralistic society, we cannot ignore social tension or deny it occurs. Despite this, the nation keeps on moving forward, although, perhaps not at a pace many may want. This year it has held its first-ever direct presidential election. The 1997 financial crisis has been a serious blow to the country but its people somehow survive.

Indonesia's youth in other examples have shined in numerous international sports and science events. Countless other young people across the archipelago are tirelessly making contributions in their own quiet ways.

The lesson we can take from the school incident is that we should not be shy from openly talking about sensitive issues, which in the New Order parlance translate to topics related to religion, race, ethnicity and communal groups.

Our past habit of sweeping the dirt under the carpet and pretending social harmony existed should be quickly abandoned.

No topic is too sensitive to be addressed in public as long as it is conveyed in an eloquent, cool-headed manner with good intentions.

Fruitful discussions often unveil the root of resentment in any given issue, which in this particular case may lie in weak legislation or otherwise.

By bringing these sensitive issues into the open, we are, in effect, giving a new breath of courage to the nation -- the same courage that was brilliantly displayed by those youths under the watchful eyes of the Dutch colonial government.

Commemoration of Youth Pledge Day may have lost some of its vigor, but it is fulfilling the substance of the pledge that is more important.

By addressing the issue head on, we are showing our respect and indebtedness to those visionary youths, despite not remembering the day with pomp and ceremony.

We are, in effect, living the 1928 pledge.