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.