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)