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Indonesian school bill rekindles
religious rancor
By Richel Langit
JAKARTA - The harmonious relations developed
before and during the invasion of Iraq by the United
States and its allies seem destined to be short-lived
for Muslims and Christians in Indonesia, the world's
biggest predominantly Muslim country.
A
controversial national education-system bill, which the
House of Representatives (DPR) plans to endorse on May
20, has once again put Muslims and Christians on a
collision course, raising fears of renewed bloody
religious conflicts that could lead to territorial
disunity.
The bill requires both state and
private schools to teach religion to their students. It
also states that religious lessons have to be taught by
teachers of the same religion as the students. If
enacted, the bill basically will oblige Christian
schools to hire Muslim religious teachers if they accept
Muslim students or Muslim schools to provide Christian
religious teachers if they have Christian students in
their classes.
Although the bill recommends no
punishment for non-complying schools, Christian schools
and experts have strongly opposed the bill. Christian
schools, which in Indonesia are known for their high
standard of education and strong discipline, attract
thousands of Muslim children every year. And in some
places, including the capital Jakarta and other big
cities across the archipelago, Christian schools - both
Catholic and Protestant - have more Muslim students than
Christians. These Muslim students usually come from
well-to-do families in which one or both parents went to
Christian schools for their primary or secondary
education.
Under the pretext of carrying out a
religious mission, Christian schools require all
students - be they Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or
Christians - to attend religious classes, which means
Catholicism for Catholic schools and Protestantism for
Protestant schools. Usually, these schools require the
parents of non-Christian children to sign a letter of
consent - stating that they have no objections to their
children attending Christian classes - when they enroll.
Failing or refusing to sign the letter means their
children cannot study in Christian schools.
Such
a policy, however, is not a monopoly of Christian
schools. Muslim schools also require Christian students
to take Islamic classes, including the recital of the
Koran. Non-Muslim parents are asked to sign a letter of
consent if they enroll their children at Muslim schools.
The chance of Christians enrolling at Muslim schools,
however, is very slim, as most Muslim schools are not up
to the standard of most Christian schools.
Given
the situation, it is no wonder that the education bill
has drawn two different, opposing reactions. Christians
have rejected the bill, while Muslim communities have
generally welcomed the draft and called for its early
endorsement. Street rallies for and against the bill
have become regular features of big cities across the
country. In big cities such as Jakarta and Surabaya in
East Java, Christians and Muslims take turns
demonstrating in front of the DPR or local legislature,
calling for either the scrapping or endorsement of the
bill.
While the protests have generally been
peaceful so far, suspicions are running high between
Christian and Muslim communities. Christians suspect
that the bill is targeted against Christian schools.
Some legislators deliberating on the bill have admitted
that proponents of the draft aimed at exerting influence
over Christian schools, where children of most
high-ranking government officials enroll. Muslim
hardliners have long harbored the suspicion that those
Christian schools are part of what they consider as
Christianization of Indonesia. Christians also suspect
that the bill is part of efforts by Muslim hardliners to
turn Indonesia into an Islamic country after they failed
to insert the word syariah or Islamic law in the
amendment of the 1945 constitution last year. Indeed,
major proponents of the bill are Muslim-based political
parties, some of which have publicly declared that the
controversial education bill was a tradeoff after they
agreed not to include syariah in the amendment to
the constitution.
The suspicions are so intense
that some Christian-dominated provinces such as East
Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua have
threatened to wage wars for independence if the DPR goes
ahead with its plan to endorse the bill on May 20. But
so far, legislators have refused to change articles in
the bill requiring religious classes in schools.
Indonesians in general are still nursing the
wounds inflicted by prolonged religious conflicts that
broke out almost immediately after the downfall of the
dictator Suharto in 1998. In Maluku province, where more
than 10,000 people have been killed after bloody
conflicts between Christians and Muslims broke out in
January 1999, security authorities are striving to
restore order. Peace remains shaky, with conflicts and
bombings still taking place in the archipelagic
province. The government, however, is now facing new
problems in the province, including a secessionist
movement called the South Maluku Republic (RMS) that has
intensified its campaign for independence.
The
situation is pretty much the same in Poso, Central
Sulawesi, another site of religious conflicts. More than
2,000 innocent people have been killed in Poso since
bloody conflicts between Christians and Muslims started
in late 2000. Peace and order had slowly returned to the
area, but not until security authorities deployed
thousands of troops there.
Against this
background, some quarters in society, including moderate
Muslim groups, are wondering why the DPR insists on
endorsing the education bill. Two nationalist factions -
President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and House Speaker
Akbar Tanjung's Golkar - have unexpectedly thrown their
support behind the controversial bill. PDI Perjuangan
and Golkar account for more than 50 percent of seats in
the House. Speculations are running high that the two
factions have agreed to endorse the bill in order get
the support of Muslim communities in next year's
elections, when the country is to hold its first direct
presidential election.
Whatever the political
motive for endorsing the bill, the draft has in effect
removed harmonious relations developed between
Christians and Muslims that developed over their joint
opposition to the Iraq war. Both sides now harbor
suspicions against each other. With conflicts brewing in
some Christian-dominated provinces, Indonesia is heading
for more turbulence.
(©2003 Asia Times Online
Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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