By: Rahmat Siregar)*
The spread of intolerance is a threat to the Indonesian people because it is the entrance for someone to carry out acts of terror. The community is expected to continue to increase awareness and work together to stem intolerant understanding.
The head of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), Komjen Pol Boy Rafli Amar said that the root of radicalism and terrorism that often occurs in cyberspace is due to intolerant attitudes. For this reason, he emphasized the importance of narratives in fighting against intolerant propaganda.
Boy revealed that we need to remind young people or the millennial generation not to misuse the internet or social media. Especially at this time, terrorist network groups have spread to the use of social media with the narratives they create.
As an element of prevention efforts in cyberspace and mass media, BNPT has developed a program for the Forum for the Conscience of Conscience to Promote the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia or often known as Warung NKRI. In this program, BNPT involves multi-stakeholders, including the government, the community and academia. Therefore, BNPT hopes that Warung NKRI can become a forum for friendship and communication in the hope of evoking a sense of nationalism.
For information, the NKRI stall is one of the BNPT programs that involves all elements of the nation and all levels of society in activating a national insight dialogue that is rich in the values of tolerance, unity and mutual cooperation. He revealed why the program was given the name warung, it turned out that the program was a game changer. The concept of the NKRI stall as a means of education for the community in strengthening the noble values of the nation which today faces challenges with the birth of an intolerant radical virus.
BNPT hopes that the ideology of violence that is deliberately brought by certain parties to cause disintegration has no place anymore. The hope is that Warung NKRI can hold discussions that disseminate the values of Pancasila as a soft approach in preventing the notion of terrorism.
Boy Rafli said, in order to strengthen the resilience of the Indonesian nation, the Warung NKRI program was created. He said, in terms of ideology, people should not be influenced by ideology based on violence, such as the radical ideology of terrorism.
Boy also once said that terrorists have a strong tendency to be intolerant. For this reason, a spirit of empathy and understanding must be built for each other and mutual respect.
Then resilience in warding off radical viruses and terrorism also comes from religious leaders who always teach the importance of religious moderation. Religious moderation is a conception that can build tolerance and harmony in order to strengthen national unity and integrity.
It should be noted that Indonesia’s population is dominated by productive groups, namely young people who fall into the Millennial and Z generation categories. This of course can be a time bomb in the future, if these young people actually fall into the ideology of radicalism and terrorism.
BNPT sees that the source of resilience so as not to be influenced by radicalism and terrorism should naturally be present first from the family environment and then from the educational environment, namely schools.
Apart from being wise in accessing social media, efforts to prevent and overcome intolerance and radicalism can be carried out through increasing national, religious and socio-political insight. Boy also reminded the younger generation not to forget the national identity. A strong understanding of the nation’s historical struggles is needed to be digested, lived and practiced.
Intolerance and radicalism can threaten democracy and hinder development in Indonesia. The younger generation, which represents a quarter of Indonesia’s 270 million population, is particularly vulnerable to hate speech and radical messages.
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin once regretted the practice of intolerance that had reached an attitude of not wanting to be friendly, sitting next to each other or conducting business activities with groups or individuals of different religions or beliefs. He is also worried that if this intolerance is allowed it will be dangerous and damage the integrity of the Indonesian nation.
The idea of intolerance in Indonesia should not be given space, because the omission of this understanding will have a negative impact on progress and the sense of national unity. The community also needs to know that the struggle for independence is not only carried out by one tribe, but there are many tribes who participate in the struggle to defend the independence of the Republic of Indonesia.
)* The author is a contributor to the Pertiwi Institute