Religion fills vacuum as traditions break down

By Endy M. Bayuni

JAKARTA (JP): Religion is reviving in many parts of Southeast Asia as local traditions break down under the strong pressure of modernization.

The breaking down of customs and tradition has left a vacuum in many societies in Indonesia, as in many parts of Southeast Asia for that matter, Bernhard Dahm of the Southeast Asia Studies at the University of Passau, West Germany, said at a discussion at The Jakarta Post.

In the case of the community in South Tapanuli, a regency in North Sumatra where Dahm has been conducting lengthy and extensive research, this vacuum is being filled by Islam, he said.

This trend toward religious revival is found in other parts of Indonesia, and in Thailand and Vietnam, albeit in different forms, he said.

While Indonesia, particularly South Tapanuli, has been Dahm's main field of survey, his university is also involved in various research projects in Thailand and Vietnam.

The onslaught of modernization in Southeast Asian communities has been further strengthened by the penetration of television, he said.

It is now common to find an entire family in rural areas sitting together all day watching television, each of them absorbing modern values, he said. In the past the older generation used such occasions together to orally hand down traditional values to their offspring.

"Local customs cannot be defended against the onslaught of modernization ... because the pillars of tradition are now weak and shaky," he said, pointing out that this is true for all customs in Indonesia.

"This is an extreme challenge never faced before," said Dahm, who is considered as one of the first "Indonesianists" in the West. He also has written a book about Indonesia's first president, Sukarno.

He added with a little prophecy that: "Tradition may be doomed for Indonesia in the future."

In the past, Southeast Asian societies managed to incorporate incoming foreign values -- from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and later European Christianity -- into their traditions through the process of integration.

The tribal leaders then played a prominent role in selecting which values they found appropriate to incorporate, he said. "They could still handle it."

But now modern values are not being brought in by people from foreign land but rather by sophisticated means of telecommunication, he said. "These are forces which the tribal leaders do not have any control over."

The onslaught of modernization also is creating its own resistance in many societies. So while traditional values may be weakening, religious values are increasingly filling in the vacuum, he said.

Pointing out his extensive study in South Tapanuli, he said Islam is making a strong revival there as can be seen in the increasing enrollment of people at pesantren (Moslem boarding schools). One particular pesantren now boasts 7,300 students, while it only had between 3,000 and 4,000 in 1979, when he first launched his study, and around 6,000 in 1989. Other pesantren in the area also are growing by leaps, he said.

"The upsurge of Islam in South Tapanuli is a reaction against modernization ... People are turning to religious tradition to prevent them from losing their identity."

Dahm recalled that he had chosen to study the changing values in South Tapanuli in 1978 because of a remark Sukarno made in an interview in October, 1966.

He posed a question on whether or not there could be a radicalization of Islam in Indonesia. Sukarno then answered that "as long as local customs and traditions remain strong, there is no danger of radicalization of Islam in Indonesia."

In 1978, when there were signs of increasing radicalization of Islam worldwide led by the revival of the religion in Iran, Dahm decided to return to Indonesia to find whether local customs could withstand the challenges of modernization without resorting to radicalization as has happened in other parts of the world.

Dahm concluded that there is no indication of radicalization of Islam in Sumatra despite the revival of the religion.

"The Islam we find in Indonesia is different from the Islam in other parts of the world," he said, underlining the high level of tolerance of Indonesian Moslems to the presence of other religions.

"In South Tapanuli, it is normal to see a church and a mosque side by side, there is intermarriage between clans, and there is also continuous conversion from Christianity to Islam and from Islam to Christianity," he said.

He acknowledged that radicalization of Islam is more likely to occur among urban intellectuals rather than in rural areas, but pointed out that the Al Arqam movement, which is based in Malaysia and now banned in Malaysia and Indonesia because of its radical thoughts, has its origins among peasants and not intellectuals.

South Tapanuli was chosen for his study in part because it was sandwiched between the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra and Aceh, two strong Moslem societies. And in part for personal reasons because Dahm's father spent a great deal of time in nearby Tarutung as a missionary at the end of last century.