Religious riots orchestrated to devide

Religious riots orchestrated to devide

Religious conflicts are rife these days, the latest being the
destruction of mosques in the East Nusa Tenggara capital of
Kupang on Monday. Masdar F. Mas'udi, director of the Indonesian
Society for Islamic Boarding Schools and Community Development
and a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Driyarkara School of
Philosophy, discusses what is at the core of the problem.

Question: Do you think the burning and destruction of mosques
in Kupang will invite retaliation from Moslems?

Masdar: The Kupang incident might encourage Moslems in other
cities to retaliate unless Moslem leaders manage to pacify their
communities. Participants of the ongoing congress of the United
Development Party (PPP), for example, have reacted feverishly to
the incident.

Moral and material losses inflicted on the nation as a whole
will be unimaginable if retaliatory actions from both sides
escalate.

The only party that will benefit from such a religious
conflict will be those trying to sustain the status quo of their
power.

We hope that Moslems and Christians alike know that religious
sentiment is not the determining factor for the rioting and that
they will not try to take revenge against each other. As soon as
they opt for tit-for-tat attacks, religious sentiment will turn
into a determinant factor for further conflicts which sooner or
later would destroy the national integration. All of us would
suffer losses because we built unity with concerted efforts for a
long time.

Q: Religious leaders often meet after a religious riot but are
such meetings helpful?

M: Such a meeting is attended by religious leaders who have
understood the importance of pluralism. Dialogs will surely help
improve their mutual understanding and their tolerance toward
each other.

But it does not involve medium-level, local community-based
leaders and because these leaders, both in Islam and
Christianity, generally compete against each other to win
influence of their local communities, they sometimes become
sources of fanaticism and religious sentiments. Involving these
leaders in dialog meetings among religion leaders is therefore
very important.

Q: Were all the recent riots targeting mosques and churches
generated by religious sentiments?

M: People devoting themselves to a religion will not be that
brutal. The fact that local religious leaders hastily came to the
scenes of rioting to calm down the mobs and to clarify the matter
showed that religious sentiments played a minor role in the
incidents. Such rioting would never have occurred if there had
been no provocation from a third party.

Q: What were the main causes behind the incidents?

M: The economic gap between the rich and the poor and the
imbalance in access to political decisions on public policies
have played major roles in the disintegration of the nation. Even
though religious sentiment played a minor role, it could help
intensify conflicts if used to legitimate particular social
actions.

Q: If you believe that the riots were provoked by a third party,
which party was it?

M: I cannot mention by name. But some sources said that the
provocation was from people who had lost their power, assisted by
those trying to sustain the status quo of their power because
they were afraid of losing it. Their strategy is to create a
state of disorder, under which the people will consider that
their presence is still badly needed to restore and sustain
stability.

Q: Religious leaders have repeatedly asked the government to find
the mastermind of the many riots but it seems so lackadaisical in
its effort. Why?

M: Such requests were very important for the religious leaders to
at the very least clarify that the riots had nothing to do with
religion. If they failed to make such a clarification, their
religions would acquire a bad image.

Results of the investigation have never been announced because
very important persons were apparently involved in the riots and
the authorities were afraid that the mentioning of their names
would create new problems.

Q: Do you think that the recent conflicts between people of
different faiths are in any way related to the practices of the
New Order government?

M: I think the conflicts stem from the divide-and-rule strategy
imposed by former president Soeharto's regime. In his 32-year
reign, Soeharto was supported by the military which implemented
management measures difficult to be carried out by civil parties.

Q: Do you expect that social conflicts will escalate as we come
closer to general election day scheduled for June 1999?

M: If the recent conflicts are not settled properly, the next
general election is likely to become a trigger for more dreadful
rioting and social disorder.

Q: What should be done to improve religious tolerance?

M: Socially, the government must introduce serious measures to
narrow social gaps. Moslems, who constitute the majority of the
population, are mostly weak politically and economically, while
the minorities are politically and economically strong.

Leaders of different religions must also increase the
frequency of their dialogs, particularly those among medium-
level, community-based local leaders. (riz)