P

resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo can take pride in the fact that the one major religious conflict to erupt in his first year in office was quickly resolved, to the satisfaction of almost everyone.

The riot in the small remote town of Tolikara in Papua in July did not erupt into a wider conflict between Christians and Muslims in the rest of the country. Thanks to the central government'€™s quick intervention, the leaders of the local Christian and Muslim communities made peace and pledged to live in peaceful coexistence.

The riot erupted when Christians holding a meeting protested at Muslims who were holding Idul Fitri prayers to mark the end of Ramadhan in a nearby open field. It remains unclear how it started, but the protest turned into a riot and police officers deployed to protect the Muslims opened fire. The Christian protesters started setting kiosks on fire, which spread and razed a mosque. One Christian youth died in the police shooting.

This episode is now better known for the swift action of the local religious leaders to patch up their differences with the full support of the central government. And with good reason too.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, Muslims were quickly angered by the news, especially because early reports wrongly suggested that the Christians had deliberately set fire to the mosque. Leaders of the Christian community in Jakarta swiftly condemned the action as '€œun-Christian'€ and endorsed the government'€™s swift action, which included arresting two Christian leaders for instigating the riot.

Life soon returned to normal in Tolikara.

Strict law enforcement and government persuasion are effective ways to deal with religious tension and conflict. This gave Indonesia more right to brag by and large that different religious communities coexist in peace and harmony.

The state motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), survived a test case in Tolikara.

But Tolikara, where Muslims are a minority, is an exception to the rule when it comes to cases of religious tension and conflict.

More typical is the story of the Oct. 13 attack on a church in Singkil, Aceh. A huge mob set fire to a church after attacking Christians much smaller in number. In trying to disperse the crowd, police opened fire, resulting in one death and four people injured. The mob said the church had no building permit and was therefore illegal, and that they had lost patience with police for failing to shut it down and had decided to take the law into their own hands.

Apparently, a number of other churches in the small Aceh town have also been declared '€œillegal'€ and are vulnerable to attacks.

There are long-standing and festering problems of religious conflicts elsewhere in Indonesia. Tragically, most are in Jakarta or Java, much closer than Papua and therefore more visible to President Jokowi. He needs no reminding.

The congregations of the Yasmin Christian Church in Bogor and the Filadelfia Batak Church in Bekasi, both townships adjacent to Jakarta, have held joint prayers outside the presidential palace every other Sunday to call for his intervention.

They lost their churches when the Bogor and Bekasi mayoralties shut them down, citing a lack of building permits. The churches had won their cases at the Supreme Court, but yet, more than two years later, they still cannot return to their churches. Both mayors have defied the court and the law of the land, and they go unpunished.

Also still festering are cases involving the Ahmadiyah and Shia communities, Muslim sects that the dominant Sunni in Indonesia have denounced as heretic and blasphemous. Thousands of their followers continue to live in shelters because they had been evicted from their villages. There are no prospects of them returning home anytime soon.

When Indonesia celebrated its 70th independence anniversary in August, many held it as testimony to the strength of pluralism, or Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, in keeping the nation united in spite of differences in race, ethnicity, tradition, culture, language and religion.

The country with the largest Muslim population in the world has been hailed as a model for other predominantly Muslim nations, for its ability to build a democratic society that guarantees all sorts of freedoms, including freedom of religion. Indonesia is now portrayed abroad as the world'€™s largest Muslim-majority democracy.

Key to this peaceful coexistence is the promotion of tolerance and mutual respect between the different religious communities. At least this is how Indonesia promotes itself abroad at various international interfaith dialogues.

What Indonesian officials don'€™t tell you is that this tolerance has also been extended to groups who are intolerant, even to the point of engaging in violent activities.

The attacks against the followers of the churches in Bogor and Bekasi, as well as the Ahmadiyah and Shia, have been instigated by gangs of thugs that conducted their violence under the banner of Islam.

The government, or the police, were often absent (unlike in Tolikara), and the majority of the population, yes, the Muslim majority, do not speak up (again unlike in Tolikara). Their silence is read by the religious minorities as condoning the attacks and vandalism.

Granted, these are cases in pockets of the world'€™s largest archipelagic state, and that should not be taken to reflect the state of religious freedom in Indonesia. By and large, the different religious communities live in peaceful and harmonious coexistence.

But the government'€™s failure to address these few cases, all dating back to the time of the previous president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, raises concerns about the future of freedom of religion in the country and pluralism.

When Jokowi came to office, many hoped he would be able to resolve them. He even kept Lukman Hakim Saifuddin in the Cabinet as religious affairs minister because he had given indications that he was making progress in handling the Ahmadiyah and Shia cases and was more sympathetic toward the Yasmin and Filadelfia congregations.

Instead, it is Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama who is showing how best to deal with intolerant groups. A Christian more popularly known by his Chinese name Ahok, he is the only government official who is willing to openly confront the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), which has led attacks against religious minorities, calling them a gang of criminals.

Ahok has since been engaging in a war of words with the FPI, and through this confrontation he has put a stop to its violent activities, although for how long remains to be seen.

Ahok'€™s action raises the question, is the President really that powerless in dealing with radical groups like the FPI? Can he really not prevail over local leaders, like the mayors in Bekasi and Bogor, because they enjoy full autonomy? Is it a question of the President being unable or simply unwilling to do the unpopular thing?

This appears to be more a question of leadership and the credibility of the President.

They are all simple, clear cut cases of the President upholding the Constitution, his oath of office, to guarantee freedom of religion and to protect citizens against persecution for their beliefs and to practice their faiths. Regional autonomy may have delegated much authority to the regional governments, but religion is not one of them and it remains the domain of the central government.

In almost all of these cases, it is simply a question of enforcing the law.

Yudhoyono lost some credibility for his failure to deal with intolerant groups during his 10 years in office. Jokowi is about to go the same way, unless he intervenes.

These problems are unlikely to remain status quo and sooner or later they will change. But without government intervention, they will likely change in the wrong direction. When that happens, Indonesia'€™s pluralism will be undermined.

Going into his second year in office, and now that the President has consolidated power after one year of struggling with his detractors within the coalition government, there is hope that he will begin to address these problems.

Let'€™s see this time next year how he does. We can only pray.
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The author is senior editor at The Jakarta Post.