Could someone please name another nation where there is a blend of cultures more diverse than those found in Indonesia?

With more than 17,000 islands — the archipelago is home to around 300 ethnic groups, each of which has its own local languages — Indonesia’s cultural diversity is definitely unmatched.

This diversity, however, is a double-edged sword, and has at times been a major constraint preventing citizens from uniting and acting as “one nation”. Since the arrival of the first colonialists, the Portuguese in 1512, it took more than 400 years for this array of ethnic groups to unite as one nation and declare independence from the colonial powers.

Without doubt, the key to our unification was the declaration of the Youth Pledge on Oct. 28, 1928, when jongs (youths) of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds (including Sumatran, Javanese, Bataknese, Ambonese and Chinese) gathered and vowed to eliminate the great divide of their racial barriers, and declared themselves Indonesian.

This oath became a keystone in uniting Indonesia, and proved to be pivotal in the struggle to break the shackles of colonial rule.

Fast-forward 82 years to present-day Indonesia, and it is worth reflecting on the values of the Youth Pledge once again.

Violence in the interests of specific religions and racial groups has erupted in many parts of the region, with hatred and resentment eclipsing the aphorism “unity in diversity” that is gripped tightly by the Garuda, as an important part of Indonesia’s national identity.

In the past Jong Ambonese worked hand-in-hand with other Indonesians, regardless of where they were from in the archipelago. But there didn’t seem to be any love between the people of Ambon and Flores involved in a violent clash on Jl. Ampera recently, when they exchanged blows and spilled each other’s blood.

And while in the film Merah Putih we can see a Muslim school teacher fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with a Christian farmer and an obedient Hindu soldier against a Dutch colonialist, today the religious intolerance in this country is growing, following the stabbing of two church leaders in Bekasi, allegedly at the hands of Muslims who opposed the church’s presence in the area.

If only our founding fathers who proclaimed the Youth Pledge could see what we are doing at the moment. They would surely be very ashamed to have us as their descendants.

I am deeply puzzled as to why such racial barriers and differences matter? During my high school years, my school was mostly dominated by Chinese-Indonesian students with very rich family backgrounds, but in reality they never looked at me differently, despite the fact that I am a Javanese Muslim who (merely) comes from middle-class family background.

And regardless of our differences in race, religion and social status, we were still Indonesian at heart.
“You know, I was really impressed by the way you guys sang your national anthem together so enthusiastically,” said a visiting Irish teacher who taught high school students in the United States, while visiting our school one day.

“In the United States, young people your age can’t even remember [the words to] their own national anthem,” he said.

Indeed, it is ironic for this ethnic violence to have flared up now, considering that back in high school all my friends identified me as “Indonesian” and nothing else mattered. At that time my Chinese-Indonesian friends frequently offered me rides home, happily invited me to their houses, and on occasion introduced me to their parents who later cooked me dishes so we could eat together.

Did those involved in the violence say they were acting out of retaliation, or because of one or two things that a Bataknese or Ambonese person did in the past? If so, they really should learn to forgive and bury the hatchet.

When I sat at the dining table with my friend’s parents, I was sure they had not forgotten how the Javanese people brutally treated their Chinese relatives during the 1998 riot.

Revenge is never-ending; forgiving each other and living together in harmony makes life more comfortable. For the massively diverse range of ethnic groups found in Indonesia, the latter is indeed a better option, rather than succumbing to urges to get revenge now and living a life full of insecurity later.

Amid recent clashes involving religious and ethnic groups in Indonesia, I reflect and miss the moment when a foreigner was in awe and felt really timid seeing Indonesian high school students from different religions and ethnic groups singing Indonesia Raya, sincerely, together.

Ask the Dutch colonialists on this date 82 years ago, and it would have been the same feeling running down their spines when the Jong Sumatranen Bond, Jong Ambon, Jong Batak, Jong Java, and other Indonesian youths from different backgrounds ignored their differences and stood as one to sing Indonesia Raya, wholeheartedly.

The writer is a student at the University of Indonesia’s School of Economics.

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