T

wo harrowing incidents - the police gunning down Southeast Asia's most wanted radical and the mass rallies protesting President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia - distracted the Indonesian public's welcome to the president's pulang kampung (coming home).

The term was coined to indicate that Indonesians expect a lot from the visit. However, the visit, like anything else in the world, fails to make everybody happy. There is no magical thing in the world that can ensure universal satisfaction.

The visit, many hope, should bear fruit in the political, economical and social relationships between the archipelagic country and Uncle Sam's country, between those who wear a sarong and those who wear a cowboy hat, between Andy Warhol's country and Afandi's, between the heirs of John F. Kennedy's dream and those who want to keep Sukarno's legacy alive, between those who enjoy country and jazz music and those who enjoy keroncong and dangdut, and between the country whose seal reads EPluribus Unumand that which reads Bhinneka Tunggal Eka - both mottoes emphasize diversity and unity.

Radicals are of course, are not pleased with the visit, which will be celebrated by other Indonesians who "revere" Obama. These radicals will never give up entirely. Rather, they seized the golden opportunity to show to the public that they - including their movement and agenda - are still alive. To them, showing up as a huge crowd in protest of the visit is important. So is drawing parallels between the current war in Afghanistan, inherited by Obama, with the wars waged by his predecessor.

It appears that the content of their demands are not the radicals' true goal. Nor is logical thought. They just keep moving in influencing the media and the public (see Ismail Yusanto, The Jakarta Post, March 5, 2010). They seem to boast: "Look at us, we are still here; we move among you; our voices are still important; many support us; no matter how many of those you slay whose ideas of caliphate and sharia we share, we can still protest against your plan to welcome Obama."

They realize that their efforts in gathering as many people as they can on the streets will never influence the planned visit. Yet, for them, their public exercise is much more important than the reality that we know. To such a movement, dreams are deemed higher than reality.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), on the other hand, shows wisdom, refusing to pronounce an edict which prohibits the visit of Obama. As a rule, the president should be welcomed and respected in at least the way he was in Cairo, where he delivered an eloquent speech.

In terms of security, for the sake of people in the long run and for "the guest," whose arrival has been delayed, the police have showed good work ethic. Praises have been bestowed upon them. The list of fugitives' names decreased one by one.

However, shooting and chasing the perpetrators will never suit the long program of de-radicalization. That the fugitives are scared and therefore hide somewhere in a remote island or in a crowded neighborhood does not mean that they stop spreading their teachings. In fact, they consolidate their power.

Shielding the next generation from radical ideologies should be the highest priority.

In this regard, two ministerial offices, the National Education Ministry and Religious Affairs Ministry, are responsible for putting this into practice. The former should seriously think about issues aside from the national exams, whereas the latter should focus its attention not merely on the lucrative haj business. Both, however, should be in the front row in thinking of de-radicalization programs in the long run.

Muhammad Nuh, the current of education minister who was educated in Paris, must realize how important is to guard our system of education from the seeds of religious conservatism before it is too late. Students should not only know about one religion, but many religions.

They should be taught not only about the content of different religions but also about the history of religions.

They should not only be asked to practice a certain religion and its ethic, but also be told how religions emerged in this world.

For instance, reciting the Koran, a common practice reportedly found from elementary to high schools, should be accompanied by the history of the scripture itself.

Suryadharma Ali, the current minister of religious affairs minister whose background is Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), should also further summon students from Islamic universities to hold cultural perspective in viewing their own religion.

Religious dialogue should not only be promoted in hotels and be the knowledge of elite intellectuals, but be developed into common knowledge for all students and people.

De-radicalization programs in the long run should not be put on the shoulders of anti error unit Detachment 88, whose job it is to hunt down perpetrators, who have been taught about Islam and this world in the wrong way.

In cases of radicalization, prevention is the cure, for the sake of future generations.