“Buddhism is merely a minor belief system, a Buddhist is just the same as a Pacifist, and Buddhists are peaceful people…” that is what people in Indonesia or some other countries, where Buddhists are considered a minor community, say about Buddhism. But, what would happen when Buddhists are the major society in a country as in Sri Lanka and Thailand? How do they deal with one another? How do they manage conflict amongst them? How do they deal with diversity?

This would be more interesting if we extend the questions to a conversation about the internal issues of Buddhist communities nowadays. For instance, how are Buddhist knowledge and customs transferred from one nation to another, like the case of Buddhist education and ordination for monks and nuns? Are there any problems on power and gender relation in this regard? And, why do Buddhists consider the concept of “Early Buddhism” and “Engaged Buddhism” as alternative solutions in their everyday life in facing contemporary world and its complexity?

Since long ago gender relations have been problematized by many scholars in the global north as well as the global south seen from many fields of study such as sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, and so on. The concept of masculinities is inside this debate. Along with the debates about gender relations and the form of masculinities, the relations of the global south and the global north have shaped various practices and forms.

The forms of relations occur as results of the various relations of both the global south and the global north. To say one of the examples is colonial encounter between the occupier and the occupied as said by Franz Fanon, an Algerian-birth France philosopher: “Every contact between the occupied and the occupier is falsehood”. This falsehood emerged in the form of articulating the concept of masculinities. Beyond that, the theorists that engage with the issues are merely dominated by the theorists from the global north using their own resources even in analyzing those issues in the global south. This fact creates the epistemic imbalance toward the studies aimed at concerning the issues of gender relations in the global south.

Talking about Islam in Indonesia, we have to put this huge discourse into some boxes of specific issues that we try to figure out deeply. As we know, Islam has been seen as a very important subject of study for the past decade. Many people started re-examining and questioning again about what we actually mean by Islam. Are there any critical shifts in the history of Islam itself? What kind of perspectives or approaches should we use to understand it? Here, we discuss about some general issues that often asked by scholars in understanding Islam especially in Indonesia.

Bagaimana masa depan demokrasi Indonesia, khususnya dalam pelaksaan Pilkada 2010? Bagaimana peran partai politik Islam dalam Pilkada dan berbagai kendala dalam demokrasi di Indonesia yang baru berjalan hampir satu dekade? Pewawancara CRCS, Hatib Abdul Kadir, menemui Priyambudi Sulistiyanto, salah seorang dosen di Flinders Asia Center, Flinders University, Australia. Kedatangan Priyambudi kali ini selain dalam masa liburan juga untuk mengisi bedah buku Deepening Democracy in Indonesia? Direct Elections for Local Leaders (Pilkada) (2009), dimana ia menjadi editor bersama Maribeth Erb.

Berikut ini adalah wawancara Team Website CRCS dengan Melanie Budianta

CRCS: Sejauh mana kekuatan narasi itu mampu memberikan kekuatan suara kepada orang-orang yang terdiskriminasi khususnya kaum perempuan di Indonesia?

Melani: Jadi sesungguhnya narasi mereka itu ada di sekitar kita, tapi belum tersuarakan. Dia bisa dipendam saja. Ada ibu-ibu yang menyimpan dalam buku harian, atau dalam hati saja mengenai pengalaman mereka sehari-hari. Tapi kaum minoritas mempunyai kemampuan lebih dalam menyensor diri mereka sendiri. Padahal narasi itu berisi pengetahuan yang mungkin justru bisa mengisi narasi-narasi besar yang ada dari negara. Jadi penting untuk menemukan narasi dan menyuarakannya. Jika orang tersebut tidak punya posisi untuk menyuarakan, maka penting untuk menemukan orang lain untuk membantu suara mereka terdengar.

Saya pada akhirnya mewawancarai Tomas Lindgren, setelah ia melakukan studi lapangan untuk kedua kalinya di Ambon (2005 and 2009), di sebuah kafe di Yogyakarta. Pak Tomas mewawancarai orang-orang yang terlibat langsung dalam konflik dan beberapa akademisi lokal dalam melihat konflik di Ambon yang terjadi selama sekitar empat tahun (1999-2004). Ada banyak penemuan dan analisa penting yang disampaikan dalam wawancara ini

CRCS: Kali ini anda melakukan penelitian tentang apa?

Tomas: Saya tengah menulis sebuah buku tentang agama dan konflik, dan beberapa bagian di dalamnya berbicara tentang konflik di Maluku. Penelitian ini berfokus pada narasi masyarakat terhadap konflik agama, yang berdasar pada narasi tempat dimana mereka tinggal. Saya tengah mencoba mengilustrasikan konflik di Maluku tersebut