PLURALISM IN ACTION

By: Siti Rohmanatin Fitriani

From when a person is born, he has many identities which may be different from others. Some of these identities will be embedded in him for the rest of his life, such as race. Some will be changed if he wants, such as religion and nationality. But each person has their own identities, the diversity is unavoidable in our lives. It is a social fact.
Living with diversity needs tolerance, respect, and acceptance. Many Indonesian people would agree with this. But, agreeing with this pluralism idea does not always lead to willingness to implement it in their daily lives. Some prejudices still stay in most people subconsciously. That is why, some people who agree with the pluralism idea cannot accept others whose identities are different as those whose identities are the same. For example, people are reluctant to agree if one of their nuclear family marries a person whose religion is different (thejakartaglobe.com). Another example, based on my experience in Papua, some tribes living in Jayapura assume that mountain tribe ways of live are bad and primitive. Usually, mountain tribes such as the Wamena tribe wear bone as an ornament which is put in between their nostrils. This negative assumption towards the Wamena tribe caused conflict between the Wamena tribe and the tribe of Yoka in November 2010. The Wamena tribe burned all the houses at Yoka’s village because a group of Yoka’s young men said that the people of the Wamena tribe lived like animals. They said it in a song which was recorded and accessed by people via bluetooth transfer from one mobile phone to another. This is, for me, proved that people agree that all people from all ethnics are the same. But, in action, they do not treat other tribes as the same human kind
One of the reason why people do not implement their agreement of treating others the with pluralistic perspective is that the negative label, assumption, and prejudice towards other groups outside people’s own group are still transferred to the children, whether it is intentionally or unintentionally. For example, parents sometimes ask their children not to hang out with children of certain tribes.
Therefore, to realize the idea of pluralism in action, there are some initiatives that might be taken. First is education. Pluralism has to be taught in formal, non formal, and informal education. The methods in this education process have to be a combination of theoretical and practical ones. By this, everyone will learn, not only about what the pluralism is, but also experience pluralistic circumtances.
The second one is socialization. An inclusive socialization will make a person better understand others. A person who interacts more with others is likely to have no difficulties in accepting and understanding other people’s way of life, principles, and choices. This might be in the form of doing activities together which are not restricted to certain groups. For example celebrating new year with all residents in the neighbourhood, disregarding their etnicity, religion, age, indigenousness, etc.
The third is law and regulation. Diversity is one of the main characteristics of Indonesia. Diversity may lead to conflicts if it is not well managed. It is the duty of the government to make sure that people in Indonesian live in peace and harmony in diversity by issuing law and regulation.