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“Takjil war” is a bond that unifies the nation after bitterly contested election
In a recent video that went viral on TikTok recently, Pastor Marcel Saerang, upped the ante further by calling on members of his Tiberias Church congregation to "exact revenge" by buying all the eggs during Easter so that Muslims could only consume egg-shaped candy during the Idul Fitri feast.
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Sweet and tasty: One of the most popular takjil delicacies is the lupis (sugary rice with grated coconut). JP/Budi Sutrisno
(JP/Budi Sutrisno)
T
he sermon of a Christian pastor who told his congregation to defeat Muslims in the hunt for takjil (light snack) while they were weak from fasting could have triggered outrage in the Islamic community.
In a recent video that went viral on TikTok recently, Pastor Marcel Saerang, upped the ante further by calling on members of his Tiberias Church congregation to "exact revenge" by buying all eggs during Easter so that Muslims could only consume egg-shaped candy during the Idul Fitri feast.
But despite the high post-election tension, Muslims remain calm and in fact, some Muslim clerics have made jokes about the comment.
Maybe this is the real blessing of Ramadan, that a harmless joke like that could ease political tension, especially following the General Elections Commission's (KPU) announcement that Prabowo Subianto is the official winner of the Feb. 14 presidential election.
We are accustomed to believing that the political and business elite can engineer societal conflict by fanning religious sentiments, but this year this doesn't seem to work.
In fact, the recipe for disaster is already in place. Following Prabowo's landslide victory, his supporters are now busy teasing followers of the defeated candidates, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo. Meanwhile, Prabowo's detractors have mocked the president-elect, saying that he would only be outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo's puppet.
But it seems that people at the grassroots level have found ways to reduce tension. They have learned from the bitterly contested 2014 and 2019 elections, when conflicts at the elite level spilled over to society and wrought havoc only to see politicians mending their fences just in time to share the power.
