Update to a post I originally published to Instagram. English translation available further below in this blog post.
Nggak mau memperdebatkan demokrasi lagi saat ini di akun ini. Sementara ini. Namun satu: Indonesia dari jaman Sriwijaya, Majapahit, Kutai Kartanegara hingga kini, mempunyai sejarah panjang multikulturalisme dan multireligiositas. ⠀
Nggak ada satu wilayah dalam Kepulauan Nusantara ini yang homogen. Dan Indonesia tidak bisa dipecah-pecah berdasarkan identitas kesukuan ataupun keagamaan. Dialektika mau nggak mau harus dan akan selalu terjadi, musyawarah & mufakat harus selalu diusahakan sebelum apapun bisa dijalankan. Bahkan mau ngomong sebatas Sumatera Utara, atau sebatas Pulau Bali, atau sebatas Jakarta, atau Pulau Nias sekalipun.⠀
Demokrasi bukan sistem pemerintahan paling sempurna. Tapi di antara sistem-sistem yang lain, yang lain banyak yang jauh lebih buruknya.⠀
Dan iya, untuk jelasnya & menghindari salah pengertian: religio-fasisme dapat terjadi berlandaskan sistem kepercayaan manapun. Bukan hanya Islam, bukan hanya Kristen, bukan hanya Buddhisme (seperti di Myanmar), bahkan bukan hanya Ateisme (seperti yang terjadi jaman Pol Pot era Khmer Rouge), dan seterusnya.⠀
I don’t want to debate democracy anymore at this time at this account. Not for the time being at least. But one thing: Indonesia from the time of Srivijaya, Majapahit, Kutai Kartanegara and to this day, we have a long history of multiculturalism and multireligiosity.⠀
No area within this Nusantara Archipelago is homogenic. And no region can be divided purely based on any ethic or spiritual-religious demarcation. Dialectics & debate, like it or not, will always happen and will continue to happen, and our Musyawarah & Mufakat principle is how we can get anything done in this country. We can’t divide North Sumatra, or Bali, or even the Jakarta area or Nias Island.⠀
Democracy is not the absolute perfect system. But among so many other systems, there are so many much worse possibilities.⠀
And yes to be clear, to further end any confusion at this time: religio-fascism can happen based on any belief-system. Not only Islam, not only Christianity, not only Buddhism (as is happening in Myanmar), not only Atheism (as had happened during the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge era), and so on.⠀
Image & caption originally posted to Instagram: [ig]ferdiz_draw, Sept. 20, 2020. This version further edited to take advantage of WordPress larger text limit & overcome Instagram’s text-caption character limit. Last update on Sept. 24, 2020
The Mind-Dumpster 