A peaceful Christmas in Indonesia

Christians across Indonesia can rest assured they will celebrate Christmas in peace given the National Police’s commitment to maintain security and order during the holiday. The police say 82,000 personnel will stand on guard around churches and other public places nationwide to deter any threats.

Even more heartening is a voluntary offer from various Muslim youth organisations to help protect churchgoers, which only evinces religious harmony.

Without belittling the show of responsibility on the part of the police and the public, beefed-up security measures ahead of religious holidays like Christmas and Idul Fitri should give us cause for concern.

Such a major deployment of security personnel may instead send a message that certain people or groups with evil intentions are ready to disrupt, if not halt, these religious events.

The simultaneous bomb attacks targeting churches in a number of cities in Java and Sumatra on Christmas Eve in 2000 and an explosion at a McDonald’s fast food outlet in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar in December 2002 are still fresh in our memories. Most recently, a bomb went off in Surakarta, Central Java, on the eve of Idul Fitri last August, turning joy into fear among not only Muslims but also the whole population of the city.

The acts of violence have not only left many traumatised, but also cast doubt over religious harmony and tolerance, which the nation has tried to cultivate even before the birth of the Republic in August 1945. More irritating is the fact that religious violence has thrived ever since the country moved toward democracy after three decades of authoritarian rule.

Bloody fights between Muslims and Christians in Ambon, Maluku; and Poso just a few years after the end of authoritarianism sullied the name of democracy further.

Some will be easily duped by the “good old days”, when the government ― obsessed with political stability ― gave no room for the seeds of hatred to grow in religious communities. But the apparent rampant conflict, or at least tension, between the followers of different faiths today increases public skepticism about democracy. Public confidence in democracy may be under threat.

There are concerns too about religious violence, which has reportedly driven the government’s push for a draconian national security draft bill that aims to criminalise hate speech. Opposition to the bill warns that its enforcement will kill off democracy.

There is nothing wrong with democracy. History has taught us that Indonesians have long been familiar with and practiced its intrinsic values, such as respect for diversity and the protection of minority rights, as demonstrated by our founding fathers.

What this nation lacks in terms of conserving democracy is perhaps its tendency to compromise the rule of law with (short-term) political interests. When people who spread hatred against others or kill others in the name of religion are able to escape arrest or receive light sentences thanks to political pressure placed on those upholding the law, the public will find justification and rationalisation and then follow suit.

Strict law enforcement is the most feasible deterrence against crimes, including religious violence.

At the end of the day, we expect religious harmony to flourish because of an acceptance of each other, not because of fear linked to the enforcement of the law. In the former scenario, we may no longer need the large-scale deployment of police and military to ensure our religious holidays are observed peacefully. At any rate, the message of Christmas is a message of peace.

Merry Christmas.