Anang G. Alfian | CRCS | Article
The national news was shocked by a presence of nine middle-aged women pouring cement on their feet. It was on 13th April 2016, and the ‘Nine Kartini’ had made a long march from their villages in central Java to Jakarta to protest in front of Presidential Palace against a plan to build a cement company in Kendheng Mountain near Rembang, Pati, Grobogan.
Wanting to know more and study the problems faced by those women as well as the Samin indigenous culture, CRCS and ICRS students and lecturers traveled to Kendheng on Thursday-Friday, 24-25 November. This trip was aimed to give students an understanding of the real problems faced by the minority in preserving their lands and the place of religion and spirituality in their struggles.
Samin people have been famous recently for their resistance to cement production in Kendheng. Naming their community after their charismatic leader of the past, Samin Surosentiko, they have adopted his values of non-violence, reverence for life, resistance to injustice, bravery, and honesty.
In this trip, we were going to reflect what we had studied in the class involving subjects like religion and ecology, academic study of religion, and religion and conflict. Accompanied by Dewi Candraningrum, a feminist scholar and guest lecturer in our religion and ecology class, we were guided to reach their place in Sukolilo, Pati.
It took a five-hour journey by car to get there. As we arrived at Omah Kendheng, the place where Samin people gather, we were welcomed with warm hospitality. In the house with a wall made of woods and decorated with jugs attached around the wall, we catch an impression of a traditional Javanese nuance. There was also a gamelan in the right corner of the hall used by Samin people to preserve Javanese music and educate teenagers of their inheritance. Pak Gunretno, the leader, greeted us and served us lunch before we had discussion as planned.
Soon after that, we introduced ourselves and began the discussion. Started from Pak Gunretno, some important figures shared their explanation that the resistance to the cement company was because they want to preserve Kendheng Mountain. They proclaimed that it was their duty to preserve what they inherit from their ancestors. For them, nature is like a mother because it gives birth to natural resources for humans to consume. Therefore, exploiting it will only make the nature imbalanced and suffering from severe damage. Moreover, they argued that Central Java is supposed to be the source of rice fields and not exploited for underground materials.
Moreover, they explained about their refusal to receive a formal education. For them, the goal of education is to teach how to behave in a good way and live with wisdom. They are also famous for not taking any profession or occupation besides farming because they believe that the farm itself is enough to give them life. Other questions about their resistance and history were also asked by the students. Finally, the discussion ended in the early evening and we continued watching movie made by them as their resistance to the cement company. The next day, we visited some places like the forest where the source of water used for the field irrigation and we ended up in the sacred tomb of spiritual figure. The forest has been preserved and it is forbidden for anyone, including locals, to exploit it. The sacred tomb is the place where people sometimes gather to pray and have rituals.
Finally, before we had to go back to Jogjakarta, we discussed with the lecturers about what we had learned from this community. Zainal Abidin Bagir, the head of CRCS and the lecturer of Religion, Science, and Ecology, argued that the mountain is their identity and they cannot live without it. That is why they struggle so hard for preserving the mountain from mining production. They were really dependent on water and land. Moreover, he said that we can also articulate the interdependency of knowledge and authority. In this case, Samin people has been much influenced by their charismatic leader, Pak Gunretno, who leads the movement. However, this kind of knowledge-authority relationship is also there within academic life like the production of science that inevitably has to bow to certain authority.
Nevertheless, this trip opened our minds to the problems of minorities and modern life. It is interesting how indigenous religion has to struggle for preserving the mountain but, on the other hand, modern world demands more natural resources for consumption. In religion and conflict perspectives, for instance, we can observe this soft resistance of Samin people and what possible ways there are to reach for a solution. Many perspectives and experiences are as well needed to contribute and get involved in the academic study of religion.
Arsip:
Headline
Meta Ose Ginting | CRCS | Wednesday Forum Report
The aim of this research is to examine the background of the rumors spread in Sumba especially in relation to “foreign intruders”. For Kabova, Sumbanese rumors in general are an effort to define themselves in opposition to outside forces and also a tool for maintaining the norms within the society. Rumors according to Kabova are uncertain knowledge that spread rapidly. She added also that rumors are stories which are believed by the community and transmitted to them because they resonate with their life circumstances and address their social and/or moral concerns. Rumors also are not something that needs to be proved or disproved.
In Sumba, Kabova focused her research in Waikabubak the west part of Sumba island. In her previous research, Kabova tried to find some pattern and relation in the motivation and imagination of the incoming tourists. In this project, she did some structured interview with local people as well as participant observation. In her efforts to gather information, Kabova also tried to gather some informal narratives to her time spent with the local people of Sumba.
One of the myths perceived by the Sumbanese is the myth about sacrifices for bridge construction. Resurfacing from time to time, these rumors say that victims’ heads and other parts of the body are used to help the building construction. They use the terms penyamun and djawa toris to refer to anyone trying to kidnap local people, especially children, and take their body parts. One of the participants told her: “In the past we recognized djawa toris immediately, because a djawa, unlike us, would wear long trousers.” Djawa in the Lali dialect is anyone whose immediate ancestry is not from Sumba; djawa toris are those looking for body parts.
Following that, another idea about djawa toris or penyamun also talk about suspiciousness. “Maybe during the day he is good, but inside he is rotten. He is alone, he has a machete and in the night we will slit our children’s throat”. (Sumbanese woman talking about an Australian tourist). Due to this suspiciousness, tourists who do something outside the norm are considered djawa toris. Some places that tourist normally don’t go to will invite suspicion for the locals; tourists should stay in the cities and villages, should not go to the forest. If they go somewhere outside the norm, they should explain where they are going, what they are going to do, how long, and why.
Another aspect of the rumors is the prominence of electricity. Kabova told her stories about how the old people are usually afraid of the electricity because they think it consists of human fresh blood. Blood in Sumbanese narrative is a symbol of power. In the context of Sumba, blood has duality. The cold blood and the hot blood. Hot blood is the blood where people die in a harmful way, like in violence. This hot blood believed to has ability to speak. By her explanation, the roots of the rumors could be traced back to the era of slave trade past centuries ago. The cultural memories remain in people’s remembrance through the narratives that have been told times to times. For example, she quoted Needham (one of the researchers in Sumba): “When I lived in Kodi , in the mid-fifties, the appearance of a strange vessel out at sea, or just a rumor of one, would provoke all the signs of a general panic; men look fiercely serious, and screaming women dashed to pick up their children.”
The scenario of the rumors happened in this way. The victims are the Sumbanese, Lolinese, Kabihu members, uma members. The offenders are outsiders: missionaries, colonizers, Indonesian incomers, tourists, and state agents. Rumors can also be understood as a form of protest against the loss of political autonomy. The last point Kabova made about the circulation of the rumors as the mechanism of social control. It is a way of the local people to maintain norms. Deviation is punished by with accusations and then ostracism. For example, a man (former prisoner) accused of being a penyamun was completely ostracized by the community and those around. Mentally ill people are also often accused of being penyamun. The other way this rumors also have been used perpetually by the thieves who want to steal the animals in their neighborhood.
Some fascinating questions came up in the Q and A session. One of them is the role of religious leaders in the rumors spreading and why people still believe it up to now? Kabova told that the reactions toward the rumors are different between people in the village and in town. People keep using the story for some reason like to educate their children even though they do not believe in it. Also, the social gap between the old and younger generation shows different reaction. Subandri also came up with the story that almost in every place of Indonesia we can find narratives of head hunters. And children are always the target. Kabova thinks it is because the children are the weakest among the society because they need protection from others.
Komunitas tangguh adalah prasyarat utama bagi pembangunan sosial ekonomi yang berkeadilan. Bangunan komunitas tangguh selalu dilandasi dengan pondasi modal sosial yang kuat. Indonesia, termasuk Papua diketahui memiliki ragam modal sosial atau sering disebut dengan kearifan lokal yang diwariskan leluhur. Modal sosial/kearifan tersebut tidak hanya menguatkan ikatan komunitas, tetapi juga antar komunitas. Hanya saja, modal sosial warisan leluhur sering dianggap sudah kurang efektif karena kuatnya tantangan globalisasi. Di tengah kompleksitas fenomena globalisasi, modal sosial/kearifan lokal kembali dilirik dan dipercayai memiliki potensi dan efektivitas untuk kembali membangun komunitas yang tangguh. Ia bahkan dipercayai sebagai cara utama untuk menjamin pembangunan sosial, budaya, ekonomi yang berkeadilan: pembangunan berbasis komunitas.
Pelatihan ini bertujuan untuk memperkuat jejaring kader/fasilitator dalam membangun komunitas tangguh dengan merevitalisasi atau mereproduksi modal-modal sosial/kearifan lokal “hidup bersama” melalui program-program pengembangan komunitas di Papua, khususnya Jayapura dan Merauke.
Pelatihan ini diselenggarakan oleh Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya (CRCS) UGM, Yogyakarta bekerjasama dengan Ilalang Institut, Jayapura. Pelatihan akan berlangsung selama 5 hari, pada:
Tanggal : 20 – 24 Februari 2017
Tempat : Kota Jayapura
Persyaratan:
Aksi Super Damai 212 patut diapresiasi sebagai bukti kemajuan dan kedewasaan umat Islam Indonesia dalam mengekspresikan aspirasi politiknya. Kesejukan yang hadir dalam aksi ini sudah seharusnya diapresiasi.
Namun demikian, bagi peserta aksi, tujuan mereka bukan sekadar membuktikan bahwa Aksi Bela Islam adalah gerakan damai. Ratusan ribu atau bahkan lebih dari sejuta orang bersusah payah mendatangi Jakarta dalam aksi 212. Sebagian bahkan rela jalan kaki berhari-hari demi “membela Islam”, dengan tuntutan memenjarakan Ahok. Menariknya, meskipun Ahok tidak ditahan, para peserta aksi 212 tampak pulang dengan perasaan menang.
Sampai esai ini ditulis, perayaan kemenangan masih berlanjut. Linimasa masih dibanjiri konten dan unggahan yang menunjukkan kedahsyatan momen setengah hari di bawah Monas itu. Sebagian bahkan menawarkan cenderamata dan kaos untuk mengenang momen kemenangan.
Lantas pertanyaannya: apa yang sebenarnya telah dimenangkan?
Perang Posisi, Bukan Perang Manuver
Bagi banyak orang, partisipasi dalam aksi 212 bisa menjadi bagian dari momen langka yang tidak terlupakan. Berada di tengah lautan manusia untuk “membela Islam” merupakan kepuasan spiritual. Aksi yang begitu besar, yang dilakukan dengan tertib dan tanpa menyisakan sampah, adalah sebuah kemenangan dalam melawan wacana atau tuduhan tentang ancaman kekerasan dan makar.
Meta Ose Ginting | CRCS | Wednesday Forum Report
“Like the study of feminism, masculinity can be an important approach in religious studies. The study of masculinity emphasizes how man superiority has been graded or perceived from time to time that in turn it becomes a norm for society.”
Rachmat Hidayat, a Project Director in Kalijaga Institute for Justice, State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga, who shared his research in the weekly CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum, September 14, 2016, is and experiences about Muslim men from three Southeast Asia countries—Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia—living for years in Australia. His research questions are grounded in the problem of masculinity in Islamic studies.
In Muslim majority society, the figure of man is portrayed as the “imam” or, in a very general sense, the leader of the family. In the Muslim based society, the doctrine that male is the leader is embodied in the daily practices. The role as man in Muslim families anchors their responsibility in leading the household but, in contrast to the men living the non-Muslim society, the meanings and understandings change.
Building a framework that can help masculinity to be accepted in Islamic studies, Hidayat argued that just like the study of feminism, masculinity can be an important approach in religious studies. In general, the study of masculinity emphasizes how man superiority has been graded or perceived from time to time that in turn it becomes a norm for society.
The problem of masculinity in Muslim men living in Australia is in the sense of manhood within the family structure. In such context, the challenges are coming from the liberal and secular societies. Before explaining more about that problem, Hidayat described masculinity and how it works in the society. Masculinity is taking man as a gendered subject and perceiving men’s identity as related to but different to women. Men’s identity was constructed within certain historical, cultural, and social process. But this construction and the identity itself changes from time to time.
Furthermore, Hidayat asserted that gender construction and the meaning of the self is something that people define and negotiate every day because the discourse of the self is related to other. There are valves imply in Men’s identity. The gender construction adding the values such as bravery, toughness, rationality, to men’s identity and make people unconsciously define men in those values. In doing so, in Muslim community, being a man means being religious and strong at the same time. The practices of being a man in Muslim based society are included the practice of competition, dominance, and fathering. It shows that performance as a man cannot be separated to the relation with woman and kids.
Masculinity only can be defined and identified in the relationship therefore to study about masculinity in Islamic Studies, the approach must be done by examining men also as religious gender actors. In the context of secular of Australian society, the Muslim men identify challenges by some unfamiliar condition. Muslim men need to negotiate their position under the relation that lies between the Muslim women-Muslim brotherhood-the divine and the society itself.
With their various background, the 25 Muslim men in Australia whom he interviewed compromise and negotiate their position as Imam in their daily basis which relates to the men’s role as bread-winner in family. Facing the adversity and limitation, the Muslim men build their survival mechanism. In that survival mechanism, men need to share the authority, responsibility, and power to their partner who have more opportunity to get the money. Hence, some Muslim women replace the role of Men as bread-winner.
Responding to those facts, Samsul Maarif from CRCS asked whether women might also have masculinity and thus the term masculinity is not exclusive for men. “Masculinity, like feminine, is construction and it shows particular quality rather than embedded on sex,” said Hidayat. Within this framework, Muslim Southeast Asian women in Australia who perform their role as bread-winner also have masculine quality. However, as Hidayat underlined, men’s role as Imam is a non-negotiable status for men. Thus, responding to the challenges in every day live in Australia, Muslim men adopt some norm and apply it to the family as an act of negotiation. For example, the practice of partnership and individual freedom equality. Even when the wife becomes the bread-winner, the husband still has authority to manage the family. Furthermore, by giving permission to the wife for working, a husband serves their role as humble and just Imam because he aware of its limitation and humbly accept it. Hence, now Muslim men understand the role of Imam differently: as an act to love, to sacrifice, to share, and not being selfish with their family member.
“Laporan ini menunjukkan bahwa dalam banyak kasus, Pilkada turut berperan dalam terciptanya struktur kesempatan politik yang memungkinkan mobilisasi dan peran kekuatan-kekuatan sosial yang mengusung ideologi intoleran.”
Laporan Kehidupan Beragama di Indonesia ini mengkaji peran pilkada sebagai struktur kesempatan politik bagi menguatnya konflik atau kekerasan keagamaan. Tanpa bermaksud mendelegitimasi Pilkada langsung, Laporan ini mengulas tiga kasus kekerasan terkait hubungan antar dan intra-agama. Ketiga kasus ini dihadirkan untuk memberi ilustrasi pentingnya mengantisipasi efek samping dari Pilkada terhadap situasi keragaman agama di Indonesia.
Ketiga Kasus tersebut adalah kekerasan terhadap Masjid Ahmadiyah dan beberapa gereja di Bekasi (Jawa Barat), kekerasan terhadap penganut Syiah di Sampang (Jawa Timur), dan sengketa pembangunan Masjid Nur Musafir di Kelurahan Batuplat, Kota Kupang (Nusa Tenggara Timur). Ketiga kasus ini dipilih untuk memberikan ilustrasi tentang pentingnya memperhatikan Pilkada sebagai masa kritis yang bisa menentukan pola hubungan antar-agama.
Dengan demikian, bertujuan untuk memberikan pemahaman mengenai peta permasalahan terkait kehidupan beragama, beberapa karakternya, dan peluang-peluang atau cara-cara konstruktif untuk menanggapinya. Hasil pemetaan menunjukkan bahwa sesungguhnya selama 15 tahun terakhir ini, ada beberapa jenis isu utama yang muncul secara konsisten. Misalnya, sementara kekerasan komunal berskala besar cenderung menurun secara tajam, namun kekerasankekerasan sporadis yang terkait dengan “penodaan agama” atau isu pembangunan rumah ibadah tampak makin intens; isu lain yang kerap muncul sebagai akibat demokratisasi adalah menguatnya wacana pro-kontra terkait pembuatan kebijakankebijakan publik, baik pada tingkat nasional maupun lokal.
Laporan ini bisa diunduh: http://wp.me/P5Fa8A-4P
