Ini adalah working paper yang aku bikin buat ASEAN LOGICS application…semoga ada manfaatnya hehehe
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION
Indonesia : Bhineka Tunggal Ika ( Unity in Diversity – Different, but One)
The purpose of this paper is to argue that differences, in some way, can be beautiful. Indonesia is a country that has so many differences in many aspect of its life. Indonesia even has the state motto: Bhineka Tunggal Ika, which means Unity in Diversity. We could say that the most fundamental diversity in our country is on the five different religions in Indonesia. There are five legal religions in our country: Islam, Christian, Catholic, Hindu and Buddha. Every citizen of Indonesia had been taught that Indonesia is one of the biggest archipelago in the world. This archipelago consists of thousands of islands. This is why Indonesia has a lot of different culture, ethnic group, and tradition.
In Indonesia, there are about 1,000 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups. It is also stated that only 15 of those ethnic groups have a population over 1 million people. Javanese is the highest populated ethnic group in Indonesia. They are widely spread in most of the area of the country. We will always meet Javanese people everywhere we go in Indonesia.
Now, talking about the religions in Indonesia. Most Indonesian citizen are Moslem (Islam). It is known that over the last three decades, Moslem people in Indonesia are about 87 to 88 percents of the whole population. In the 2000 census over 88 percent of Indonesians chose Islam as their declared faith, followed by Christians with 8.9 percent, Hindus 1.8 percent and Buddhists with just under 1 percent. The caveat however, is that the government only formally recorded and recognized five religions: Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu and Buddha. Until 1971, it is stated that Confucianism was still listed as one of the belief in this country with a record of 0.82 percent. After that, in the 2000 census, people who did not prescribe to those five religions were categorized as ‘others’, and recorded to 0.8 percent of the whole population.
Our problem: Accepting differences
It would be such a beautiful thing if everybody realized to accept all the differences in this life. Unfortunately, this has not happened in our country yet. There are a lot of people who still think their group ethnic is better that other’s. Some people still think that they are stronger than others. Now, let us recap some fundamental differences in Indonesia. ( Source : Jakarta Post, June 20th , 2007)
* Race: There are two dominant races: Malay in the west and Melanesian in the east. There are also minority groups like Chinese, Arabs, Indians and European/Eurasian.
* Ethnicity/Cultural group: There are hundreds of ethnic and sub-ethnic groups each with its own culture and traditions. Javanese is the largest of the ethnic groups. Other major groups include Batak, Acehnese and Minang in Sumatra, Sundanese, Madurese and Balinese, Bugis and Menadonese in Sulawesi. Then there are the small and often marginalized groups like Betawi in Jakarta, and the Dayak in Borneo and the many tribes in Papua.
* Language: Nearly 400 distinct languages and dialects are spoken in Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia is the national language and is used in official functions. Most people, however, speak their local tongue in daily activities.
* Religion: All the world’s major religions are represented in Indonesia, and they coexist and are often practiced side by side with local and homegrown beliefs that include various forms of animism. Although the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the government only recognizes five faiths for the purpose of population census. Islam is the largest with 88 percent, followed by Protestantism with 5 percent, Catholicism with 3 percent, Hinduism with 2 percent and Buddhism with 1 percent.
There are not many other countries that are as racially, ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse as Indonesia. See: Appendix A and Appendix B .This could be either beneficial or disadvantage for us as Indonesia citizen.
Facing these differences, as the citizen of Indonesia, we should be proud of what we have in our country. These could be the assets of our country. The differences in many aspect of our life could be something valuable that no other country has. The problem is there are still a lot of people in Indonesia do not think that way. Some still think that the larger populated ethnic group the more powerful they are in this country. This is a paradigm that we have to change.
We were taught to always accept all the differences: cultural, religion, ethnic group, race, etc, because they are all part of our lives. In fact, these differences had caused a lot of problem in Indonesia.
This is an example: The Riots in Ambon
At January 19, 1999, Ambon and the area around it were involved in a local war between their people. Most people in Ambon are Christian, but Moslem people in Ambon were used to live hand in hand with those Christian people. This harmonic life didn’t last for long. The war began because of the simple thing.
The war began when a taxi driver had a fight with one Moslem man in Ambon. This little fight was being used by the provocators to make more riots. This has been a usual pattern, when every big riots starts from something little like a small fight between a taxi driver and a Moslem man. We can see this same pattern in other cases, such as : Ketapang, Kupang, and Poso ( which had not been widely published by the media).
Another example : The Riots in Maluku
Since a long time ago, Moslems and Christians in Maluku had been involved in a sort of race to gain the upper hand in the religion, economics and politics of the region (Maluku)
Maluku communal riots have their root causes in the contest for economic resources and the increasingly disproportionate distribution of political power in the local bureaucracy between Moslems — consisting of indigenous Maluku and migrants better known as the BBM (Buginese, Butonese and Makasarese) all from South Sulawesi — and indigenous Christians over the last two decades at least.
Both Moslems and Christians race to be the most superpower population in the region. In the end, more chaos and riots happen. Who’s the victim ? Mostly children and women.
Those examples are proof that there are still some Indonesian citizen who cannot accept the diversity in Indonesia. There are some people think that they are better than the others. This is a problem that has to be solved. The only way is to change the people’s way of thinking of facing differences.
Changing the way of thinking is not a very easy thing to do. We have to start with the roots of the problems. To change the people’s way of thinking, we have to start from the basic level : The Indonesian Youth.
chAPTER TWO : OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS
Youth plays a big role in a life of a nation. Youth are the next generation who will take the big role in this country. The new way of thinking should start from the youth’s way of thinking facing the differences in Indonesia.
Every big thing starts from a little step. To be the agent of change, we can start from the community around us. There are so many NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) which act in bridging the cultural differences. Taking part in this kind of organization will be one good way to open our eyes wider facing the diversity in our country. To give you a brief and clear example, I will explain my involvement in two NGOs in my community:
American Field Service ( Yayasan Bina Antarbudaya)
This is one of the world’s largest not-for-profit volunteer based organizations. It offers international exchange programs in over 50 countries through local AFS organizations, each with a network of volunteers, a professionally staffed office, and headed up by a volunteer board. Every period, AFS send the best high school students around Indonesia to go abroad to feel being “the real citizen” in other country. From this program, the students have the chance to learn other country’s culture (which is very different with ours) and learn to accept all the differences. They also have to introduce Indonesian culture to their community in other country. In the end, this program will produce people with new way of thinking, people who can appreciate differences and take them as part of this life. From this program, the youth will have two benefits at the same time: They will have the high respect and appreciative to their own culture, and they also will more appreciate other country’s culture. They will see that there is a beauty behind the differences in this world.
Another AFS program is hosting students from other countries to stay for a while in Indonesia. The foreign students will stay in Indonesian family, go to Indonesian public school and act as a real Indonesian citizen. This is a very good opportunity for us, Indonesian, to introduce our culture to foreign people. From this program, we will be able to show the beauty of our country to the world.
By getting involved in this organization, whether you have the chance to join the exchange program or not, there are so many benefits that we can get. We will be able to meet a lot of open-minded people and foreign students from other countries. We will able to understand that even though this world consists of so many different culture and tradition, it won’t stop us to respect and appreciate each other.
Paguyuban Mojang Jajaka Bandung City
This organization concerns on preserving the Sundanese culture. Every year, this organization holds a Cultural Ambassador Pageant to choose female and male youth called Mojang and Jajaka to represent their city (Bandung). They have the duty to promote their culture ( Sundanese ). They also have the chance to go around the country to learn other culture and also promote and introduce Sundanese culture.
Cultural Ambassador Pageant is not only held in Bandung, but also in some other area in Indonesia, such as East Java, Middle Java, Bali, and also some part in Sumatera. This is a very positive activity where youth will be able to respect and love their own culture. Furthermore, they will also respect other culture.
Youth : The Agent of Change
Youth are the ones who will take control of this country in the future. They have to open their eyes that differences should not be the barrier to make peace in this world. There is a phrase saying that Youth are The Agent of Change. This is for real, since youth are the generation who can bring this nation to a better condition, in every aspect. As a part of the youth generation, making a change in our way of thinking is some kind of an obligation. We have to set our mind that there are much benefits if we can accept and appreciate the differences between us.
Taking a part in one of the NGOs in our community is only one in a million way to be the agent of change. I took it as an example because it is something simple and feasible to be done. We can always start from something little to get a bigger shot.
CHAPTER THREE : CONCLUSION
We can make something big starting from doing a small step. As a part of youth generation, bridging the cultural differences can be done by getting involved in some real activity in our community.
AFS and Paguyuban Mojang Jajaka are two in a million ways that can be done by the youth to make this world a better place. Those are the things that feasible to be done in our daily life as youth generation. Starting with a big will to make a change, we will get a great thing: more peace. The main point is how to change our way of thinking. Differences should not be the barrier to make friends or to spread the love to other people who are different with us.
As an Indonesian citizen, we should be proud of all the cultural differences that we have. Those differences should be our asset to be shown to other countries. Even in such diversity, people in Indonesia can live hand in hand in peace. All those riots and chaos happened mostly because of simple thing like not accepting differences. In the other side, some people think that they are more superior than others. In fact, differences in our culture and belief should bring some benefit if we can explore, accept, and appreciate them. If we could make it possible, Indonesia will be a heavenly-earth place to live.
The point of bridging the differences in culture and beliefs is how we can accept those differences and act in a real activity to implement it. As a part of youth generation, we are the agent of change to make a better place to live.
REFERENCES
- www.thejakartapost.com/colourfulchina3.htm
- www.thejakartapost.com/colourfulchina4.htm
- http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/budaya
- www.indonesiamedia.com/2006/07/mid/budaya/nias.htm
- www.indonesiamedia.com
- www.seasite.nia.edu/Indonesian
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/budaya-indonesia
APPENDIX A
Table : Religions in Indonesia (percentage)
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Religion
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Percentage
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Islam
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88 %
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Christian
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5 %
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Catholic
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3 %
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Hindu
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1.8 %
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Buddha
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>1 %
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APPENDIX B
Table : Fundamental Differences in Indonesia
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Race
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Dominant : Malay
Others :Chinese, Arabs, Indians and European/Eurasian.
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Ethnicity/Cultural group
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The most dominant : Javanese
Major Groups : Batak, Acehnese and Minang in Sumatra, Sundanese, Madurese and Balinese, Bugis and Menadonese in Sulawesi
Small Groups : Betawi in Jakarta, and the Dayak in Borneo and the many tribes in Papua.
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Languange
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Mother-tounge : Indonesian
Other : Local Languages
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