Youths trained to see friendship beyond religion

This is the fourth and the last of a series on peace building in sectarian-scarred Poso.

Now that peace has returned to Poso, maintaining harmony is still a challenge in the religiously-charged region, where conflict has occasionally resurfaced over the past four decades.

To address this situation, a unique education curriculum focused on peace has been developed by Wahana Visi Indonesia, the Education Ministry, the regency administration and local religious leaders.

Local peace advocates have warned that the hard-earned peace in the region remains fragile because many interest groups, including the political elite, have a tendency to jeopardize communal harmony for their own interests.

The results of a survey on religious tolerance among youths in the Poso regency and the Central Sulawesi provincial capital of Palu, conducted in May last year by Wahana Visi Indonesia and the Foundation for Indonesian Children’s Welfare, showed that the people share similar concerns.

Only recently made public, the survey involving more than 700 respondents found that a disturbingly large number of young people still refuse to befriend others from different religions. Although Palu was not hit by the bloody eight-year sectarian conflict that tormented residents in Poso, 35 percent of respondents in Palu and 15 percent in Poso say they are still unwilling to associate with people of different faiths.

“Even though it might not reflect the entire situation in Central Sulawesi, the high percentage is worrisome,” Wahana Visi Indonesia Sulawesi-Maluku peace education officer Frida Siregar said.

The survey also concluded that a significant number of young people harbor animosities toward people of different faiths, as reflected by the account of 22.5 percent of Palu respondents and 26.7 percent of Poso respondents who said they wanted to become police officers and soldiers so they would be better prepared to defend their own people.

“This shows that children still harbor a high degree of aggression,” Frida said.

The survey prompted the idea of introducing “peace education” in schools, so that children could learn the broader meaning of communal harmony. This unique curriculum has already begun in 21 public Christian and Muslim schools in Poso, and the local government is expected to issue legislation to provide legal grounding for the initiative, Frida said.

The sectarian conflict that broke out in December 1998 split Poso along Islam and Christian lines, but peace has been restored, allowing displaced families to return and interact with the community. There have been no significant incidents of violence over the past four years.

However, Poso has a four-decade history of similar clashes, although the 1998–2006 period was clearly the most serious.

According to official figures, the Muslim to Christian population ratio in the area stood at 61.3 to 35.8 percent at the height of the conflict in 2001. At that time, Christians lived mostly in the hilly areas while the majority of Muslims lived in coastal and low-lying areas.

The first major conflict in Poso occurred during the Darul Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army (DI/TII) rebellion in the 1950s. Rogue South Sulawesi leader Kahar Muzakkar had sought to establish an Islamic state, but the rebellion displaced a great number of Christians, many of whom fled to the vicinity of Lake Poso in Central Sulawesi between 1956 and 1963.

Muslims and Christians in Poso joined forces when confronting another rebellion — the PRRI/Permesta uprising in North Sulawesi in the 1960s, but they split after the uprising ended. Christians then formed the Central Sulawesi Christian Youth Movement and Muslims established the Buluh Tanjung Brigade.

“In the present era of democracy, a religious divide has been institutionalized by political parties,” Palu-based Tanah Merdeka (Free Land) Foundation director Irianto Sangadji said, as quoted by Tempo magazine.

A small riot broke out in 1992 when a Christian convert distributed pamphlets that Muslims said insulted their religion. Tensions eased after the culprit was arrested, tried and sentenced to four years in prison.

Another skirmish occurred in 1995 after rumors claimed that a group of Christian youths threw stones at a mosque and an Islamic boarding school in Tegalrejo village.

“We are tired [of the conflicts], but the government does not have a comprehensive solution,” said Ruwaidah, a Muslim leader and signatory to the government-sponsored 2001 Malino Peace Declaration orchestrated to end conflict in the region.