Making A Difference

Divisions In Java

Radical Muslims torch churches, fanning communal tension

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Divisions In Java
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THE year ended on a sombre note in Indonesia. The country's third and most serious religious riot of 1996—on December 26 in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya—has renewed anxieties about civil peace and provides fresh fodder for the ever active political conspiracy theorists.

In Tasikmalaya, on the day after Christmas, Muslim rioters burned down four churches, two hotels and four banks, as well as shopping malls, dozens of automobiles and shops owned by members of Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority. The next day, soldiers were deployed to restore order. According to some reports, though, the troops guarded only government buildings, leaving churches and commercial areas unprotected.

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Precise details about what prompted the riots are still not available. On the surface, the riots seem to have been expressions of religious bigotry and economic resentment against the relatively prosperous ethnic Chinese, many of whom are Christians. By law, every Indonesian must declare himself an adherent to one of four religions: Islam, Christianity—Roman Catholicism or Protestantism—Hinduism and Buddhism. Chinese Indonesians are not allowed to practise Taoism or Confucianism, so most become at least nominally either Christians or Buddhists. About 85 per cent of all Indonesians are Muslims.

But analysts say there is more to the matter than meets the eye. Some note that both Tasikmalaya and Situbondo (the site of the October 10 incident in which churches were burned and five Christians died) in East Java are strongholds of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation. The NU's leader, Abdurrah-man Wahid, is widely respected as a political and religious moderate and is believed to be on the receiving end of an ongoing power play by members of the government-affiliated Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals, which is known by the acronym ICMI. ICMI is headed by B.J. Habibie, the powerful technology minister and a possible successor to President Suharto.

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Some observers believe that the ICMI or some other entity might be trying to discredit Wahid and the NU. The swiftness with which Wahid has condemned each of the riots supports this theory. He was  quick, for example, to call the Tasikmalaya incident "an emotional reaction by irresponsible people which should not have happened for whatever reasons".

Many believe that if clandestine politics at high levels is, in fact, behind the riots, those responsible may well be playing with fire. Indonesia's normally calm social fabric has been unnecessarily and perilously disrupted. In recent years the country has seen a resurgence of popular Islamic feeling, which can express itself in violence and discrimination against non-Muslims. Many of the rioters in Situbondo were lower-middle-class, urbanised members of an ethnic group called Madurese, known for provincial, violent attitudes and staunch adherence to Islam.

The mix of high politics and low religious emotion is a volatile one. "Tensions between ethnic and religious groups have always been part of Indonesian history, but recently relations between the Islamic community and the Christians have been at the lowest ebb," says Gunawan Moha-mad, a prominent Muslim intellectual. "It's never been like this before."

Understandably, Christians are concerned. J.E. Sahetapy, a Christian leader and university professor in Surabaya, sent Suharto a letter expressing his worries in unusually strong language. He received no reply. Sahetapy does not hesitate even to criticise the president directly: "Since Suharto took over, in 1966, more than 200 churches have been burned." Indonesia is not officially an Islamic country, he points out. "Christians do not just get room and board in Indonesia," he says. "We participated in the struggle for independence from the Dutch. The proof of this is the crosses in every military cemetery."

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 Dr Sularso Sopater, titular head of the country's Protestants, is more diplomatic. "We need prayers to help us maintain our Christianity in this unique situation," he says. Those hoping for domestic tranquility express gratitude for the moderation of Wahid. "Frankly, I'm very happy that they have a leader like Abdurrahman Wahid who is very broad-minded," says dissident political leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's founder Sukarno. "What this country needs is a strong spirit that the nation must be built with togetherness."

 Indonesians have seen one alternative to religious togetherness on TV. "Once there is a conflict, it can be a Bosnia or a Northern Ireland," says Sahetapy. "Is that what you want in Indonesia?" Asked if that could really happen here, he replies: "It depends on our Muslim brothers."

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