Faith and practice: Searching for the Good News in Indonesia 2011

Minority groups are also waiting for the moment they can trust the government to uphold their rights, even in the face of zealous tyranny. Followers of Ahmadiyah are yearning for the time when their mosques will be protected by the state from mob attacks.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Johannes Nugroho | December 27, 2010

Now that the Indonesian football team has lost to its Malaysian counterpart in the first leg of the AFF Cup finals, the clamor and euphoria surrounding the competition may be coming down a few notches. We have seen reactions to their recent success from all walks of life, from the melodramatic story of East Javanese vendor Yanto, who spent all his ready cash to fly to Kuala Lumpur, to the more calculated moves by politicians to capitalize on what seems to the rest of the populace as the rare piece of good news about the nation’s achievements.

And, essentially, this is what the football euphoria is all about.


There is no denying that Indonesians are hungry for things that can prop up our self- esteem as a nation, reasons to justify our ability to stand taller or at least on par with other nations. We are no longer satisfied with just being one of the world’s most corrupt countries, let alone a nation whose overseas contract laborers are physically and sexually abused on a daily basis.

Even the government recognizes this and hence the shameless maneuvers to win popular support by being seen to stand by our football heroes, hopefully in either success or failure.

Yanto’s almost reckless determination to show up and do his part for the nation’s football team despite his obvious financial limitations should aptly inform the government that we are thirsting for moral, and perhaps more importantly concrete, sustenance to justify our own existence as a nation.

As our hopes for an energizing piece of good news to grace the last week of 2010 were all but dashed in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, we are reminded that ultimately it is in the other more essential fields of life that we need to hear good news.

Closer to the bone, we need more uplifting things to be happening to our economy, specifically the micro-economy. The government has been adept at reeling off statistics attesting to progress on the economic front. We are being told that we are doing well compared with many other countries in the economic race. But while our export figures may be up, inflation threatens at every economic pitstop.

In plain language, most of us are not interested in that kind of good news because it simply has very little effect on our daily lives. Rather we are waiting for the moment when we can smile broadly after having been to the local market, because the money we took there was actually more than enough to buy them our family needs.

Small business owners often wonder when they will be able to operate their businesses hassle-free from local government officials who, after the implementation of regional autonomy, continually invent a thousand reasons to extort money.

Ordinary citizens are waiting for the moment they can confidently trust their government when it orders them to evacuate before a natural disaster strikes; confident enough that government officials will not embezzle funds and good intended to provide disaster relief and that their homes will not be burgled into while they are away.

Minority groups are also waiting for the moment they can trust the government to uphold their rights, even in the face of zealous tyranny. Followers of Ahmadiyah are yearning for the time when their mosques will be protected by the state from mob attacks. Buddhists in Tanjung Balai, Sumatra, are wondering when the government will come to their aid as Muslim hard-liners, supported by the local authorities, beat down their temple doors, demanding that the statue of Buddha atop be brought down.

West Papuans, whose land yields gold and other countless minerals to the benefit of our nation, are waiting to be pleasantly surprised too. Their good news would be the cessation of torture and degradation by the state apparatus against the indigenous.

We have read news reports about two Papuan youths who managed to be brilliant performers in international scientific Olympiads. We have also eagerly learned about other achievements by individual Indonesians, yet these are precisely that: Individual achievements.

What we are waiting for are collective achievements as a nation. This is the sole reason many Indonesians have given their all for our football team because it carries our sacred national emblem — the Garuda, thus becoming the embodiment of our nation. The players are no longer individuals competing in a game as their identities and aspirations are merged with those of the nation.

As 2011 closes in on us, Indonesians will be yearning for more good news, the kind they can relate to and benefit from.

Many Indonesians believe that the national emblem, both carrier and incarnation of the god Vishnu, is imbued with power. It has indeed been the emblem used by rulers of the nation for centuries stretching well into the Majapahit era to signify their ability to produce the miracles of prosperity and good news for the nation. Every Majapahit king was believed to be a Garuda Yaksa, an incarnation of Vishnu.

Hence, it is up to the present government to invoke this power once more. As the saying goes in football parlance: The ball is now indeed in the government’s court.


Johannes Nugroho is a writer based in Surabaya


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