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span class="inline inline-center">Fostering plurality: Social Services Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa (fourth left) and Women Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yambise (third left) visit Tolikara after religious violence shook the Papuan regency in July. After 70 years, the nation is still grappling with its quest for unity in diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika).(Antara/Trisnadi Rei)

A recent incident in Karubaga, capital of Tolikara regency in Papua, in which several young Papuans protested about the use of an open field and a loudspeaker during Idul Fitri prayers on July 17, has raised the specter of religious conflict.

The protests were followed by shots fired by security officers against protesters and the burning of stalls, the fire spreading to a musholla or prayer room. Quite a few mainstream national media outlets reported that what had happened was an attack by indigenous Christians on non-indigenous Muslims. Irresponsible comments on social media also aggravated the situation, leading to perceptions that a conflict or '€œwar'€ had been sparked between Christians and Muslims in the mountainous region of Papua.

The situation worsened with the remarks of Jakarta officials that appeared to blame indigenous Papuans. Worse still, their comments concentrated on the migrants'€™ loss of kiosks and musholla; no mention was made of the young Papuan shot dead by security personnel. Government aid to rebuild the musholla and kiosks seemed to confirm views of discriminatory policies favoring Muslim immigrants over indigenous Christians.

I accompanied Presidential Chief of Staff Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan to Papua, visiting the areas of Mamit and Karubaga in Tolikara, Mulia in Puncak Jaya, Jayapura city and regency and the city of Sorong on Aug. 3 to 5 to obtain information from local chiefs and church leaders about conditions in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

What happened in Tolikara this year had precedents in other parts of Indonesia at the beginning of the reform era. Only a year after reformasi started, in 1999, a communal conflict erupted in Maluku. Communal conflict in Maluku and North Maluku caused tremendous casualties and lasted more than five years before the situation was completely restored by the movement of people from inside and outside Maluku such as '€œBaku Bae Maluku'€ (together making peace in Maluku) with the motto kitong samua basudara or torang samua basudara (we are all brothers and sisters).

A few years later, there was a major conflict in Sanggau, West Kalimantan, between Madurese and Dayaks, later spreading to Central Kalimantan. Concerns emerged that Indonesia was on the verge of a split. The conflict in Kalimantan brought about the widespread sense that inter-ethnic relations in the vast island were being torn apart. Small conflicts between Acehnese and migrant Javanese also occurred in inland areas in Aceh at the time of armed conflict, prior to the agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) through the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding on Aug. 15, 2005, while churches were burned and razed in Java.

The question that arises today from the Tolikara incident is whether relations between religious communities in Papua are really very bad. If they are, do bad relations between religious communities mirror that of the country, given the continuous challenges of diversity, particularly with respect to the relationship between religious communities? Is there any tolerance between Indonesia'€™s religious communities?

Indonesian society is a pluralistic and multicultural society. Nobody knows exactly how many ethnicities exist in Indonesia, some say 300, others 500. In Papua alone there are between 254 and 300 ethnic groups in terms of languages, plus hundreds of other ethnic groups from Merauke in Papua to Sabang in Aceh, and from Miangas up in northern Sulawesi to Rote Island in East Nusa Tenggara. Thus the figure would be closer to 500 ethnic groups.

All communities have their own ethnic language, customs and culture. The way they speak and behave is also determined by natural conditions and geographic region. A smooth-spoken manner is typical of people in Central Java, while a forthright style of speech characterizes East Java; speech full of laughter and words that sometimes seem to explode are heard among the Batak, and inhabitants of the Papuan mountains are said to talk particularly loudly.

The motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) is nevertheless appropriate. The speech of one of the nation'€™s founding father Sukarno on June 1, 1945 (a speech known as '€œThe birth of Pancasila'€, or state ideology), in which Sukarno said that the state being built was a state based on a nation, and not based on any one ethnicity or religion, of course, is also very precise. Indonesia is neither a religious state, nor a tribal state, and therefore there should be no discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion or gender.

What happened at Tolikara was not a religious conflict. It was also not a conflict between settlers and natives. As someone who grew up in Papua and learned about the social, economic, political and security in Papua, I believe that the Papuan people, whatever their religion, are very tolerant of each other. Even when religious celebrations fall close to each other, there has rarely been conflict.

In Tolikara itself, land belonging to the church was used for the district military command and the town'€™s small mosque. Some of the burned stalls also belonged to non-Muslim migrants and indigenous Papuans. The Tolikara incident did not, moreover, escalate and spread to other areas of Papua and Indonesia.

However, we cannot ignore the issue of socio-economic jealousy and the feelings of the people of Papua, given the discriminatory policies of the central government. Government and military institutions are seen as favoring migrants and adherents of Islam, the majority religion in Indonesia, over the indigenous people and majority religion of Papua, which is Christianity.

 The controversy over a bylaw in Papua'€™s Manokwari regency, known as the gospel city, banning churches other than those run by the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) and the reported restriction of mosques in Tolikara has been fueled by bylaws colored by Islamic interpretation in various regions following reformasi. Papuans also want improvement in education, health, welfare and infrastructure development in their provinces.

What is desired by natives in various regions, including Papua and West Papua, is to become masters of their own land. They also want justice, security, prosperity and peace to be enjoyed by all Indonesians regardless of race, religion or socio-economic class.

Despite all problems, the conditions of diversity in Indonesia today are much better than the socio-religious conditions in some neighboring countries in ASEAN, especially when compared with the situation in the Middle East or South Asia. However, we must remain vigilant to ensure no groups succeed in sowing discord among the unity in our diversity.
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The writer is a political researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in Jakarta