Slogans not enough to unite a diverse nation

Slogans not enough to unite a diverse nation

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Like magnificent artists, Indonesia's founding fathers coined
the magic phrase, "Unity in Diversity" to unite this diverse
nation, home to an estimated 500 ethnic groups. The words were
taken from the Sutasoma manuscript of the 14th century.

Formally, the term was adopted only in 1951 as the national
slogan through a government regulation.

Despite the slogan, social conflicts are rife in many parts of
the country, from Papua, Maluku, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, to Aceh,
even in Jakarta, forcing the nation to consider seriously if the
sense of solidarity has decreased. There is the pressing question
of whether the slogan is nothing more than empty words.

"Of course I'm not happy about social conflict. I don't know
why it occurs. It is ironic. Our founding fathers brought this
nation together with great difficulty, but now people incite
conflict. People do not realize that it was hard to unite the
nation," said Fajar, a 19-year-old student of Gunadarma
University, Jakarta.

Another young person, Swastika, 24, said the conflicts were
due to misunderstandings about Indonesia's cultural diversity and
were also a result of deep-rooted social injustice. The
government must be able to settle all the clashes, she said,
adding that ideology, culture and social systems were ties that
could bind the people as a nation.

"Diversity is not a constraint to nation-building; it just
needs a lot of work," Swastika said.

Both Fajar and Swastika doubted that hatred between the
warring parties was the cause of conflict.

Anthropologist from the University of Indonesia Yunita T.
Winarto blamed the conflict on national education, saying it did
not give sufficient explanation to students on how Indonesians,
including young people, deal with their surroundings.

She called on the government to make students aware as early
as possible that this nation comprises a range of diverse
communities.

"The most important thing is to introduce our diversity and to
instill values that enable them to appreciate differences,"
Yunita said recently.

By showing children the nation's diversity, she added,
Indonesia would accommodate and appreciate differences more.

However, she rejected speculation that the spate of unrest
throughout the country would lead to national disintegration. She
believed that the clashes were the result of injustice and
economic jealousy rather than being driven by secessionist
motives.

Meanwhile fellow scholar Parsudi Suparlan, in a study
published in 2000, cited four requirements for the nation to
survive the challenges of the Unity in Diversity concept: namely
the establishment of a civil society, democracy, appreciation of
human rights and law enforcement.

Above all, Parsudi said, there must be recognition and
appreciation of the right of tribal cultures to survive. Tribal
cultures had to be understood as one of the pillars of a strong
civil society.

One thing is certain: It needs commitment from both the
government and the people to enable this diverse nation to
survive the prolonged hardship that has followed the 1997 Asian
economic crisis.