Issues: A lesson from Switzerland?

Sept. 30, p. 7

Within a month there have been two incidents of unrest in Indonesia. After the initial shock and flurry of media coverage, which in both cases lasted a week or so, the people’s attention was eventually drawn to other more pressing things.

The communal violence in Ambon was ignited by some irresponsible person or persons spreading malicious rumors claiming that a Muslim motorbike taxi rider had been murdered by people of another religion.

A simple question of a gullible populace? Maybe.

The bomber of a church in Surakarta appears to have acted alone. Was he a misled fanatic? Did he act alone or part of a larger terrorist syndicate? The police are still investigating.

Privately, people are beginning to wonder whether or not the country was better off under the New Order’s uncompromising rule.

“At least we knew perpetrators of communal violence would not go unpunished,” some say. (By Dewi Anggraeni, Melbourne)

Your comments:

I tend to argue that societies that refuse to see minarets, or any symbols of religion or faith being constructed, cannot be regarded as multicultural in nature.

It was exactly because of this reason that the US government decided to let Muslims in New York construct a mosque close to the 9/11 ground zero, probably not because it wanted to become a multicultural society but out of a fear it would be labeled as anti-democratic.

It would be very awkward if the champion of democracy is less democratic than Rwanda or Indonesia for that matter, wouldn’t it?

For those who never lived in Switzerland, they could easily be duped to assume that this tiny country is a paradise.

Robert Vaughn
New Jersey

In fact, Swiss voters have banned the construction of minarets. Would they also have voted in the same manner regarding Hindu temples for Sri Lankan people, or temples for Thai Buddhists living in our country?

Never. Why? It is because those two minorities integrate themselves smoothly into society, unlike a minority of Muslims, who have great difficulties doing so.

The overall bad image of Muslims in general, from Egypt and Indonesia to Pakistan, where Christians are discriminated daily, had its impact on the vote.

I am still sure that most Swiss voters have no problem with minarets, but in a direct democracy, people will also vote not only with their brains.

Edi Rey
Switzerland

Hey, good to hear from you again, Dewi. I think multicultural democracy works in Switzerland because the three major ethnic groups are economically equal, which is not the case in Indonesia.

Not to mention that the Confederacy has almost a millennium of history of direct democracy — with ups and downs, especially during the Reformation — while even Californian Swiss-style democracy is still full of major faults.

Even now, looking back at Australia from Asia, Australian multiculturalism is still something to be envied.

Mario
Bandung