Over the past centuries the major conflicts of humanity can be
explained by the theory of The Clash of
Civilizations by Samuel Huntington. Huntington stated that two civilizations
with seemingly different cultures and ideology can never get along, and their
differences will always be the source of conflict. Fast forward a decade after
he published his book, two countries, neighbouring but representing two very
different civilizations; Australia and Indonesia, are beginning to develop
their relationship. But is this development merely an illusion, a prelude to a
clash in the future? Or will it be the example of defying Huntington’s theory?
When we examine the relationship between those two countries, most people
would immediately notice the cooperation in security, trades, and education.
For the past decade, those three things have been what define the relationship
between the two countries. The cooperation in the sector of security and
education has been developing rapidly in comparison with the cooperation in
other sectors. It is understandable as security is an essentially common
interest for neighboring countries. The security condition of Indonesia will
affect the security of Australia as well. These co-operations are then further
exacerbated by the Bali bombing.
The governments between the two countries have engaged in talks and
often find similar stances in the international community. It’s safe to assume
that the view of the governments toward each other is inclining toward trust.
But how about the people themselves? Underneath the two countries the
governments laid two very different cultures, and with one differentiating
issue that in essence could render the two incompatible, as result creating
distrust. It is useless for the governments of both countries to talk in high
about cooperation when the people themselves are distrustful toward each other.
The issue is not heritage or traditional way of life and
surprisingly not at all the difference in dominant religions. Although the
Australian people and most of the people that are considered western have a Muslim
paranoia at one point in the past decade, that paranoia is already starting to
subside. No, the most contrasting difference that will cause long term distrust
and fear in the Australian people is the view and action of intolerance toward
the religious minority in Indonesia. Amongst the International community and in
bilateral meetings, Indonesia has always advocated for religious tolerance,
claiming itself not as a Muslim country, but a country of religious plurality. However
in practice this noble notion is has rarely been practiced. If you want proof,
then you simply need to open up Indonesian local news.
Every day there is news
about the religious minority being denied entry to their house of worship, or
worse, being denied permission to build their houses of worship. For example
the minority Christians in Bekasi that have been locked out of their church
since 2008 and now have had their church demolished in front of them. The
government’s reason: they lacked a permit to build the churches. The worse part
is that most of the mosques build in Indonesia also lack permits but receive no
such treatment. People could even see everyday the crude punishments rendered in the
special state of Aceh, who punish people for somewhat ridiculous reasons. The
last I read about this was how a teacher in Islamic boarding school drenched
twelve students in sewer water for dating. That is the mildest punishment in
Aceh I have read about so far. All this happened while the government stood by
idly and in fact may have even been responsible in such cases as denying permits
to build churches or failing to stop the demolition of a church. This is a
serious case of hypocrisy in the very heart of the Indonesian government.
To be honest, as an agnostic citizen of Indonesia I am scared and even
disgusted to a degree every time I read this kind of news. Now imagine the
feeling of Australian citizens who have mostly been brought up in Christianity,
most importantly, in the values of a fair, secular, and tolerant government
when they read up about these incidents. And they will read about it. These
will be the frontlines of what they will discover when they express interest in
Indonesia and dig further than the surface. This is not the sort of thing that
you can go and turn a blind eye to. When you see African tribes’ tradition of
piercing their nipples, you would find it strange but you can also grow to
overcome that feeling and eventually respect the tradition for what it is. You
can’t do that when you see churches being demolished or children being bloodily
lashed with whips just because they are dating. It’s against the very nature of
the morality of which the Australian people or even the international community
are used to. It’s not only becoming a challenge in promoting Indonesia to
Australia people, it’s a very high wall that’s almost impossible to break.
Huntington is right in this case. When the two cultures of two civilizations
reflect a very different moral value, it is impossible for one to trust the
others.
But in the midst of all this there’s one sad part. The fact that not
all of the Indonesia is like that portrayed on the news. Some of us, or even
the majority of us, are tolerant and completely different. But unfortunately we
are the silent majority. The only way to prove our existence is to visit
Indonesia but that’s hard to achieve when people are scared of what they read
or see in the news. It’s hard to convince the already scared people to visit
Indonesia outside of Bali. Right now the relations between the two countries
are based on the common security threats, but what will happen when the threats
subside and Australia feels no need to help Indonesia anymore? Will the
interests of Australia toward the Indonesians decrease?
Both governments have been trying to develop relationships between
the two peoples, mainly in promoting and exchanging culture. But the path to
develop the relationship between Australia and Indonesia’s people must not be
done by promoting the beauty and charms of the culture first. It must be to
correct the misconceptions people have about Indonesia. Not about its culture
but about the value and the basic way of living. Indonesia for the most part is
not so different. Most people who have a different religion than Islam live in
peace or coexist with Muslims in harmony.
If Indonesia want to increase its appeal in international community,
especially towards Australia, then it’s time that Indonesia’s government takes
a stand on the issue of religious intolerance. The upper levels of government
already sounded their opinion against it, even the Supreme Court, but the
opinion never resulted in action. That has to change. What is at stake are not
only the human rights of the religious minority, but also Indonesia’s image as
a country. Indonesia has to stop being hypocritical and make sure what they say
in international community reflects what is really happening in Indonesia. If
not, then this kind of intolerance will only further add to the factors that
scare people away from Indonesia. It is useless that only the governments of both
countries take action toward cooperation, when the majority of the people
(Australians) are still afraid of Indonesia.
That fear will hinder progress to bring the two peoples closer no
matter how much culture is promoted as a way to get the relationship on track.
We have to tackle the main fear of those looking at Indonesia, which is the
intolerant behaviors happening in parts of Indonesia, if we want to defy
Huntington’s Clash of Civilization
theory.
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