World misinformed about RI

World misinformed about RI

By Lance Castles

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The international community has expressed
concern over religion-related conflicts in Indonesia but they
need to know more about what has really happened in the country.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), at its last assembly in
Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare, for example, listed Indonesia
as one of the worst countries in the world for interreligions
conflict.

The mass media carried reports in their Dec. 24, 1998,
editions saying: "RI ranks world's worst for religious
disharmony"; "Indonesia became the central topic of the WCC
congress"; "They expressed concern over... political oppression
of religious minorities" and "The government... just let things
happen... on the basis of the pattern of riots such as in
Ketapang, Kupang, Ujungpandang, etc, we are looking at well-
organized crimes".

The U.S. Congress, under a draft law, also threatened to
impose sanctions on Indonesia if its government did not protect
its people (read: Christian people) adequately from religious
persecution.

In the past 32 years, 516 churches have been damaged,
including 415 in the last 30 months. During the first seven
months of President B.J. Habibie's reign alone, 45 churches were
damaged -- representing an average of 6.3 churches per month, as
compared to 16 per month in Soeharto's last two years of
presidency.

It is interesting to note that most of the attacks on churches
involved only the breaking of windows and smearing of paint.
Unless a church was made of inflammable timber or contained
valuable objects that could be destroyed or stolen, there was not
much else that attackers could do.

But the morally heroic WCC was apparently more attracted to
this, rather than the case of Bosnia, where over 200,000 Muslims
are supposed to have been killed in cold blood, the case of
Sudan, where a prolonged, bloody civil war is being fought over
the enforcement of the syariah on non-Muslims .

Compare this to Indonesia, where the majority of political
parties are vigorously rejecting the enforcement of religious law
-- the case of Lebanon, where during the civil war to have the
"wrong" identity at a roadblock meant instant death, Iran, where
reportedly the top leadership of the Baha'i community has
repeatedly been liquidated or Pakistan, where a bishop committed
suicide to protest the anti-blasphemy law under which the death
sentence is mandatory and leading Sunni and Shiite figures are
gunned down in sectarian killings.

And did they remember the case of Punjab, where probably more
than a million died when the British left just because they were
Muslim, Hindu or Sikh?

Just what are the facts behind this international
stigmatization on Indonesia?

Nothing whatever. It is true that at the beginning of the war
of independence, there were people (priests at Muntilan, a small
town near Borobudur Budha temple) who were killed purely because
they were Christians. But most of the victims were those regarded
as working for the Dutch, such as being suspected as spies,
employees of the Dutch regime or even those who seemed
conspicuously European in their way of life.

Since then, it is impossible to name any person who was killed
just because he was Christian. In a riot in Situbondo, East Java,
a family died tragically in a burning church just because they
were afraid to face the mob outside. But if they had gone out,
they probably would have been safe, as the crowds were not
murderous.

Indonesian Muslims know perfectly well that Christian worship,
though based in their view on an erroneous understanding about
Jesus, is absolutely guaranteed under the Islamic law.

What about a number of Ambonese killed during the Ketapang
rioting in Central Jakarta? They were condemned for operating an
immoral establishment, not for being Christian.

What about the accusation that the government does not protect
Christians? This is a fallacy. No government, no matter however
well organized, can protect citizens and their property from
random acts of violence. It is impossible to have armed police
officers guarding all the churches and all the parishioners all
the time.

The fact that this is constantly being said in the media, also
by people who are not thinking of the protection of minorities,
simply reflects the current dominance of the oppositionist
discourse according to which the government never does anything
right. But readers or viewers should realize that there is an
irreducible minimum of random or background violence in every
society which no government can prevent.

Many Christians are obsessively worried that since the rise of
the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), they
are being discriminated against. If one points to the large
number of Christians in important positions, they claim that they
have to work twice as hard as a Muslim to get such a position.
Muslims likewise see Christianization everywhere and refer to the
long period of oppression they suffered under "Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) domination".

The fact is that the Christians cannot show that they are
underrepresented significantly in any area of national
leadership, while "proportionalization" which Muslims claim they
are practicing, is perfectly politically correct, under the name
of "affirmative action".

In Indonesian history, there has never been a Cabinet in which
Christians were not represented disproportionately. The last two
Cabinets are exceptions, with only one or two Christians. But it
can be predicted that they will be well represented in the next
lineup.

Curiously, it is probably easier to show that there have been
more victims of Catholic fanaticism than Muslim. There were
several instances in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, and East Timor,
where people were killed on the spot because of perceived
blasphemy, usually desecration of the host.

A non-Catholic going to Mass out of curiosity, for example,
was given the wafer and then, apparently becoming afraid
suddenly, spit it out or crushed it underfoot. The person was
then beaten to death by an enraged mob. Such an incident has
occurred more frequently in Flores than in East Timor and the
victims have more often been Protestants than Muslims.

Nevertheless there have been, at least, three instances where
angry Christians burned Muslim kampongs -- at Pante Makassar in
Okusi Ambeno, where East Timorese imagined a priest had been
insulted, at Kupang in West Timor, and previously at Ende,
Flores. In the last-mentioned case, the desecrator was sent to
the police for legal process. But when the sentence, regarded as
maximum punishment under Indonesian law, was announced, enraged
followers of Jesus regarded it as trivial, rioted and burned the
homes of Muslims in the neighborhoods.

It is understandable that East Timorese should resent
immigrants, while Muslims in East Nusa Tenggara, like those in
the Dayak region of Kalimantan, are perceived as exclusive and
money-oriented, unwilling even to take the hospitality of a non-
Muslim local.

Of course, such refinements are unknown to political consumers
all around the non-Muslim world, who firmly believe that
Indonesia is the land of government-sponsored terrorism,
massacres, religious and racial persecution and organized rape.
It is all very mysterious and depressing.

Recently we have been saddened by the senseless bloodshed and
destruction on Ambon, an island with a reputation for
interreligious harmony. It is nearly always depicted as Christian
versus Muslim violence, though the evidence points to the
politicization of the issue of immigration from South and
Southeast Sulawesi as the root of the problem. But in any case,
it does not alter the general point that interreligion relations
are generally good.

It is necessary to note that, at least, 10 times as many
people died in similar hostilities between the Dayak and Madurese
in West Kalimantan two years ago. This was almost invariably
referred to as "ethnic strife", even though the adversaries
belonged to different religions. In fact, the recent strife in
the Singkawang, Kalimantan, area has been between immigrant
Madurese and locals, but they are equally Muslim and Malay.
Perhaps, we can only hope that a newly elected government with
unchallengeable legitimacy will be able to bring calm to such
areas.

Dr. Lance Castles is a visiting lecturer of political sciences
at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. He has written a number
of books on Indonesia, including Indonesia, Political Thinking
1945-1965."

Window: Indonesian Muslims know perfectly well that Christian
worship, though based in their view on an erroneous understanding
about Jesus, is absolutely guaranteed under the Islamic law.