R

ich in awe-inspiring ideas, professor of theology B.S. Mardiatmadja, S.J. never tires of teaching and writing books on religion, politics, social life and education.

Despite his ability to view life from many perspectives, and despite his theological background, the professor, affectionately called Romo (father) Mardi, prefers to be called an educator to a theologian or a philosopher.

However, his preference is not without reason.

“It’s through education we can reach out to people from any kind of religion, political belief, age and race,” Mardi told The Jakarta Post.

In fact, Austrian- and German-educated Mardi has long engaged in education, giving lectures on theology and education at various universities nationwide and participating in scholarly discussions.

A prolific writer, Mardi has penned books, almost all exclusively dedicated to education and religion, including Tantangan Dunia Pendidikan (Challenges in the education world), Pendidikan Dasar Sebagai Landasan Pendidikan (Basic Education as the foundation of education), Tehnik dalam Memimpin Rakyat (Techniques in leading people).

Known as an outspoken Catholic intellectual, Mardi often takes part in interfaith dialogues, held nationwide and even worldwide. He is now a member of the Interfaith Dialogue Commission at the Conference of Indonesian Bishops.

Mardi was recently invited to an interreligious gathering between the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and religious minorities, as one of the Catholic mediators.

The gathering was organized because of the recent escalation of tension between religious groups, which have long co-existed relatively peacefully in the country as well as overseas.

Taking a broader perspective, Mardi sees the attacks on religious freedom in the country as the reflection of a more complex web of intolerance.

Many view recurring physical intolerance, in the form of violent assaults on certain religious minorities in Indonesia, as a manifestation of religious intolerance. However, the Jesuit priest believes physical intolerance is related to other types of intolerance.

“Religious intolerance is, unfortunately, often construed myopically as something related to physical intolerance only. Yet, we are naïve if we see physical intolerance as the only type of intolerance,” he says.

According to Mardi, the source of unrelenting religious conflicts emanates from individual or personal — as well as structural — intolerance, both of which are inextricably bound. He explains that individual intolerance is made up of emotional, intelligent and actual intolerance.

“Unlike in Western countries where the way of thinking is heavily influenced by Aristotelian and other school of thoughts, people in the East tend to put a strong emphasis on emotion. Emotional intolerance can emerge when people feel touched by certain individuals from the same groups who share common beliefs. People showing emotional intolerance have the tendency to see differences in opinion as enmity,” Mardi explains.

Mardi goes on to assert that we will reap the real danger of intolerance when people start exhibiting these three types of intolerance without being conscious of it.

In a broader social context, for example at the national level, people may exhibit much larger clusters of intolerance, which Mardi calls structural intolerance.

Economic, political, social, and cultural intolerance, which are the other facets of structural intolerance, have the potential to affect individual intolerance, argues Mardi. In other words, intolerance embedded in the country’s economic system can influence individual intolerance.

“As we bow to the world’s economy and are eventually led to neo-liberalism, we can now witness its devastating effects: The poor becomes poorer, and the rich become richer. This is, in my view, the greatest instance of economically-based structural intolerance.”

Learning from Switzerland’s experience in refusing to join the European Union, Mardi, however, remains convinced we have the ability to resist neo-liberalism, provided we can maintain our identity as a democratic nation.

“The economic success of a small country like Switzerland owes very much to its adaptation of democracy a la Greek, in which the government holds referendums, and involves the people [in decision-making],” Mardi said.

As to whether our nation is in a good position to defy policies imposed by countries with a strong economic system, Mardi believes the spirit of gotong royong (a traditional way of working together) is still the best asset we have.

Of course, as Mardi adds, our political structure should be conducive to providing a strong pillar for economy growth.

“It should be understood that a fragile political structure not only affects our economy, but can also bring about political intolerance. To counter this type of structural intolerance, our representatives at the legislative body need to act as representatives of the people, rather than leaders of the people”.

Mardi highlights that the rampant practice of money politics in our political structure is a perfect combination of both political and economic intolerance.

“If one doesn’t have money, one is politically weak; by contrast, if one is politically weak, one has no sufficient opportunity to gain money, and thus will become economically weak. It is here we can see the overlap between political and economical intolerance.”