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Politicians blamed for heating conflicts
Sixty-three years after independence and 10 years after reform, political elite groups have come to regard ethnic and religious differences as problems, subsequently manipulating them for their own agenda, lawmakers and human rights activists said
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Sixty-three years after independence and 10 years after reform, political elite groups have come to regard ethnic and religious differences as problems, subsequently manipulating them for their own agenda, lawmakers and human rights activists said.
Activists allege that certain politicians have been exacerbating the country's most recent religious- and ethnic-related conflicts for the sake of their political agenda. Such violence, they insist, is not rooted in Indonesian society.
Pointing to recent attacks on minority groups and small religious sects as well as the destruction of churches, Golkar's senior politician Theo Sambuaga said sectarian conflicts have been on the rise in recent years.
"The state is allowing certain groups to take the law into their own hands and attack others or burn buildings at will. These attacks have become more frequent in the past few years," he said.
"Even worse, some politicians support the use of violence to strengthen their popularity while the government appears to do little to prevent the attacks."
Theo was referring to an attack by the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) on religious freedom activists at Monas in June and by residents of Kampung Makassar on the Arastamar Theological College (Setia) in East Jakarta early this month.
Rights activists are suspicious the hard-line groups feel free to launch attacks because they are backed by politicians, officials and security officers.
"These radical groups will not dare to attack others if they have no support from some members of the government. Therefore, it is the political elite that spark and provoke the conflicts," said Hendardi, chairman of Setara Institute, an NGO which promotes pluralism.
In the Setia school attack, East Jakarta Mayor Djoko Ramadan had bowed to pressure from residents who had demanded evacuation of the school's 580 students despite the fact the school had existed peacefully for over 12 years.
Police have been slow in investigating the case, while House politicians failed to support the students during their recently held meeting.
Theo asserted pluralism was the foundation of the Indonesian nation, which though comprised of various ethnic groups speaking different languages, united together to claim independence.
As if to criticize his own party for doing little to promote pluralism among its constituents, Theo said politicians and officials have neglected citizens just because they were different, including the implementation of sharia in some regions. He said sharia-based ordinances were a threat to the country's integration.
Over a dozen regions, notably Tangerang whose mayor is a Golkar member, have enacted sharia bylaws despite warnings that the laws would deprive women and non-Muslims of their civil rights.
These include requiring Koran literacy for students and brides, enforcing Islamic dress code on all women and biased anti-prostitution laws which punish women and not men.
Critics have said many of the ordinances were drafted by unqualified people without transparency or public participation and aimed only at wooing Muslim voters.
