by: Indah Melati
Bhineka Tunggal Ika is a legacy of governance and became the ideology of Majapahit. The guarantee of freedom was able to reduce internal conflict between Buddhists and Shiva, so that with this union Majapahit could build a world empire in the 14th century.
In the first principle of Pancasila which reads “The One Godhead” is the conceptualization of religious freedom in Indonesia. The concept initiated by Ir Soekarno emphasized the principle of equality in state administration, where every Indonesian citizen is guaranteed to be equal before the law.
This reinforces the consensus of the previous founding fathers that the Pancasila is spiritually inclusive as the basis of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
Indonesian diversity is to be proud of, with a variety of ethnicities, languages and religions, people from Sabang to Merauke are united by a language of unity, namely Indonesian.
Plurality in this country should be guarded in this country, by having 1,340 tribes and 1,158 regional languages, of course Indonesia should be proud because there is no country in any part of the world that has such a diversity in Indonesia. Not only tribes and religions, there are also quite a variety of beliefs in Indonesia.
In celebrating religious holidays such as the Christmas celebration, plurality also seems thick, although there are some groups who believe that saying merry Christmas is something that is unlawful and does not need to be done.
Christmas is a celebration of joy for Christians who believe in Jesus as Savior. The tradition of greeting from followers of different religions in society is a natural thing for some people, it is also evidenced that non-Muslims also give congratulatory greetings for Eid al-Fitr to Muslims.
The polemics in Christmas sayings are based on a narrative of several groups who have faith, if saying Christmas to non-Muslims means to acknowledge and believe in other teachings. This cliched polemic is often echoed before the Christmas celebration, so that there is the potential for social friction within the Muslims.
But the view that allows Muslims to congratulate Christmas is reinforced by Syaikh Yusuf Al – Qaradhawi, the cleric views that Christmas congratulations are part of a good attitude to other people which is a basic character for Muslims. This is evidence of Islamic tolerance.
Responding those things requires an attitude to not argue with each other and feel the right self according to himself, because in essence the truth is like 5 people who draw a flower, the five people clearly draw the same thing but surely the resulting image is different, now here comes a self-maturity not to blame the person who drew flowers with different images.
The meaning of tolerance is not only trying to maintain harmony between religious communities, but also maintaining harmony and intimacy among fellow religious people despite having a different understanding. Differences of opinion about the law of saying merry Christmas should be able to return to yourself, of course, we ourselves must take control to reduce the most true nature.
True difference is a blessing from God. There is a story in which a Christian nurse tries to leave early when serving, this is so that colleagues who are at night can carry out the Eid prayer service.
In Wonosobo, one of the Javanese Christian Churches has a local radio studio with a frequency of 107.7 MHz, one of the interesting things is that some broadcast publishers are Muslim students studying at the Faculty of Islamic Broadcasting at the University of Al-Qur’an (UNSIQ). Without hesitation, he entered the broadcast cabin using a headscarf, when the prayer hour arrived the Muslim announcer was provided a place for prayer by the leader.
A strong tolerance attitude was felt when Lebaran arrived, all broadcasters who were Muslim in the JCC Java Christian Church radio received a dispensation for holidays from the broadcast hours.
In addition, we may still remember the heroic action of Riyanto who saved the church from the bombers, his body was torn apart irregularly by a bomb that exploded in his arms, at that time Riyanto was on guard on Christmas Eve at Eben Haezar Church, Mojokerto. Got word from someone who found a suspicious black package. Riyanto opened the package without hesitation, when he opened it he saw a series of cables sprinkling fire and immediately took off the bomb.
When the bomb was thrown by Riyanto, the ill-fated bomb was bounced until finally Riyanto took the bomb and held him to carry it farther away, soon the bomb exploded in his arms. This heroic action certainly has a higher behavioral value than Christmas greetings.
Diversity in Indonesia is a wealth that must be fostered with tolerance. With this tolerance, it is hoped that the spirit of unity as a nation will be maintained.
) * The author is a social observer
