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| File Photo: Ahmadiyya homes set ablaze in Indonesia |
Source/Credit: The Jakarta Globe
By Dewi Kurniawati | December 08, 2010
I spent last Saturday night at a shopping mall. I suppose there’s nothing special about that, considering many other Jakartans did the same thing over the weekend.
However, something special did happen to me that night. I was reminded of some very important questions that have been on my mind for quite a while now. Namely, where are we heading as a nation? What is our goal?
Strolling through the mall, I was terrified to hear a sudden loud noise coming from the food court. It was a thundering cheer mixed with screams.
My first reaction was to turn around and walk away. I thought a riot of some sort was taking place and I didn’t want to be there.
But it was not a riot. The noise came from people watching Indonesia’s 6-0 win over Laos in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup. The whole food court was united in victory.
I immediately felt that what had just happened was more than a simple sports victory.
It was a tremendous feeling for me to see Indonesians from different ethnic groups drowning in a flood of joy and national pride.
They clapped and cheered every time Merah Putih was close to scoring a goal. For a while, people seemed able to forget their differences.
When I read the paper the next morning, I learned that, despite the euphoria of winning, after the game thousands of spectators at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium had shouted, “Down with Nurdin Halid!”
They were demanding the resignation of the controversial Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) chairman who is often blamed for the failures of Indonesia’s football team.
Even when Nurdin was jailed for corruption, he continued to serve as chairman from behind bars. His actions are distressingly familiar to anybody acquainted with Indonesian politics.
It seems the differences between people living in this diverse nation have become more of a problem lately.
I could point out many examples but nothing bothers me more than the rising religious intolerance and the government’s apparent unwillingness to do anything about it .
Take the case of Ahmadiyah. How long can we stand back and watch fellow Indonesians attacking and burning mosques and Korans that are sacred to other Muslims?
Our Constitution’s preamble states, “The formulation of the state is to protect all elements of Indonesia.” It doesn’t say “except for Ahmadiyah.”
So why doesn’t the government do something, or at least stop the hypocrisy and just cut that line from the Constitution?
A few days after our team’s victory over Laos, I passed another mall in South Jakarta where I saw a banner that read, “People in this area oppose the establishment of a church inside the mall.”
The banner was signed by some of the neighborhood Islamic organizations.
I wrote about Christians worshipping in shopping malls about five years ago, and the reason for this is the difficulty of obtaining legal permission from the government to build new churches.
It is heartbreaking to see that the situation remains the same today. The Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, for example, has been repeatedly attacked by hard-line Islamic groups.
As a Muslim, it is sad for me to witness our great nation, with the world’s largest Muslim population, failing to protect minority groups. One of the fundamental teachings of Islam is to bring peace to all — “Rahmatan lil Alamiin.”
Why won’t the government take a stand? Allowing thugs to forcefully close any place of worship is obviously against our Constitution.
I suppose we need more sports victories, as this is clearly the glue of our national unity and a powerful, if temporary, way to forget our differences.
Remind me again, where is our goal?
Dewi Kurniawati is an investigative journalist with the Jakarta Globe.
Read original post here: Piece of Mind: The National Goal of Sporting Tolerance
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