Melintasi Sarang Naga di Bawah Angin:
Ragam Pecinan di Nusantara

Refan Aditya – 20 Maret 2023

Memori nasional tentang masyarakat keturunan Tionghoa di Indonesia sering kali dibayangi oleh pengalaman pahit yang mereka alami. Yang paling kentara ialah pelarangan perayaan adat Tionghoa di ruang publik dan pelucutan identitas ketionghoaan melalui kebijakan asimilasi paksa di era Orde Baru. Sentimen antikomunis serta kecemburuan sosial terhadap masyarakat keturunan Tionghoa juga menjadi bahan bakar stigma yang getarnya masih terasa sampai hari ini. Klimaksnya, di titik akhir kekuasaan Soeharto, masyarakat keturunan Tionghoa di berbagai kota menjadi korban anarkisme massa yang tak terperi. Namun, sejarah membuktikan, betapapun dalam luka itu, selalu ada rumah tempat trauma kolektif tersebut disulih menjadi daya; tempat harapan masih bisa dianggit bersama: pecinan.

Menimbang Keberagaman di Bawah Raja Anglikan

m rizal abdi  – 1 Maret 2023

Wafatnya Ratu Elizabeth II beberapa waktu silam tidak hanya menyisakan duka bagi warga Inggris dan keluarga kerajaan, tetapi juga menggurat pertanyaan besar: Apa yang akan terjadi dengan masa depan Kerajaan Inggris, pusat dunia bagi Gereja Anglikan?

Jemaat Gereja Anglikan patut berdebar soal ini. Mei 2023 nanti, Uskup Agung Canterbury akan mengurapi sang calon raja dengan minyak suci, memberkati, dan menahbiskannya sebagai raja baru Inggris. Saat itu, Raja Charles III bukan hanya menjadi pemimpin bagi Britania Raya, melainkan juga Gubernur Tertinggi bagi gereja induk Anglikan sedunia yang juga bergelar Fidei Defensor, ‘sang pembela agama’. Menariknya, jauh sebelum naik tahta, Charles III sudah menyatakan bahwa dirinya ingin dikenal sebagai “Defender of Faith” atau ‘pelindung agama’ alih-alih sebagai pembela agama tertentu (Defender of the Faith). Pernyataan Charles pada wawancara tahun 1994 tersebut tentu saja memancing kontroversi dan kegelisahan saat itu. Bahkan, muncul usulan penangguhan atas penobatannya jika suatu hari ia mewarisi tahta Inggris.

Enduring the Gimmicks and Polemics: Digital Performance of Religious Minorities During the Pandemic

Wednesday Forum – 01 March 2023

Despite the constitutional safeguard of Indonesia’s constitution, they were enshrined in Art. 28E, 28I, and 29, the freedom of religious expression is complicated. Many religious minority communities and irreligious individuals were suffering discrimination. The burden is manifold for those beyond the fringe of six government-sponsored religions, such as Baha’ism, Sikhism, Taoism, Judaism, ancestral faiths, and many spiritual movements (Penghayat).
The COVID-19 pandemic surprisingly encouraged social solidarity, often to the point of interfaith engagement. Despite numerous reports of women, diffables (disabilities), and other marginal groups encountering challenges, they, including religious minorities, immediately tuned in and found a decent place within the solidarity. Pandemics forced religion to immerse into the digital realm much deeper, along with its painful consequences. For sure, it cast a long shadow on digital engagements, while marginal communities could and probably would embrace it in the coming days of post-pandemic.
The reality on the ground is complicated. The digital platform, which includes numerous digital services, including social media (socmed), once offered hope for a more democratic social space and a place for minority groups to express their religiosity much freer. On the other hand, it is growing to embrace the democratic nemesis, such as becoming hate-speech and other digital illnesses enablers.
Against the above complicated and contradictory situation, between promise and unpropitious situation, there is an urgency to gauge the digital performance of religious minority communities during the pandemic. The present paper focuses on religious minority communities’ experiences in digital engagement, ranging from Confucians to Penghayat.

Dragon Nests below the Wind: the History and Diversity of Chinatowns in the Archipelago

Wednesday Forum – 22 February 2023

This talk is based on the thoughts and findings gathered during the research conducted in Chinatowns on five islands: Riau, Bangka Belitung, Java, Madura and Timor. By observing its cultural background and practices, this research aims to learn the history of the formation and development of Indonesia’s Chinatown. In the context of history, social change, and urban development, its uniqueness draws an illustration of how the communities exist and grow influenced by the cultural heritage and the dynamic complexity of Chinatown life as well. Subsequently, this mixture facts contribute as the forming elements to Indonesian culture.

Masyarakat Adat dan Ideologi Pembangunan yang Gagal

Andi Alfian – 20 Februari 2023

Masyarakat adat adalah salah satu komunitas yang telah (dan terus akan) menjadi sasaran berbagai program pembangunan di Indonesia, baik dari institusi pemerintah maupun oleh lembaga nonpemerintahan. Berdasarkan catatan Christopher R. Duncan, dalam Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities (2008), program pembangunan pemerintah Indonesia yang menyasar masyarakat adat—atau dalam bahasa Duncan, “isolated tribes” atau “isolated communities”—mulai marak sejak 1970-an. Meski berbagai persoalan dan kritik terus bermunculan, proyek pembangunan tersebut terus berlanjut hingga hari ini.

British Religious Plurality in the Age of Charles III

Wednesday Forum – 15 February 2023

On 6th May King Charles III will be crowned in Westminster Abbey, a religious ceremony confirming his role, not just as Head of State, but as Supreme Governor of England’s Established Church. But he leads a kingdom that has seen both significant secularisation and growth in non-Christian minorities over the last twenty years. This lecture will explore the impact of these trends on British identity and the way in which the understanding of constitutional monarchy and state religion have evolved to accommodate a complexly secular and religiously plural modern nation. It examines an English pluralist school of political thought that King Charles sees as characterising the British understanding of nationhood.