Should We Blame the Race?

01:01 rafi 2 Comments

Blaming the Race for Individual Acts, Is it really fair?!

Disclaimer. This note didn't want to support one candidate, just want to share my experiences though

Halo!

Recently, I was having conversation with several person. Yeah, due to our distances, we were talking in phone. Our topic itself, was about the election for sure, especially the Jakarta governor election though. The conversation began with "If you were Jakarta people, who would you choose?"

Me: "Ahok for sure!"
Him: "Ha? Like for real?"
Me: "Yups, for sure, why?"
Him: "He was blasphemy Islam."
Me: "Which one?"
Him: "Don't you see the video?"
Me: "Yes I did, so, which one? Have you seen the full video of it?"
Him: "No, I don't need to, that part has told everything"
Me: "Hmmmm, let us say that he was blasphemy our religion. I personally already forgive him, because this is what my religion teach me. And yes, the legal process is continuing, though"
Him: "Well, he's not muslim anyway. Islam forbids us to choose non-muslim leader"
Me: "Hmmmm, Well I do respect what Islam taught me, I definitely saw Al-Maidah 51 as my very first references to choose a leader. And then, let see their capabilities through their campaign and debates. And let's choose the right one, even He/She is not muslim"
Him: "No, you're wrong!"
Me: "I can't be blind with politics, I don't want to be. And I just don't want to choose the worst one, even though he's same with my religion. Definitely our ideology is different"
..........
Well, the conversation keep moving forward. Till he said to me "Do you really want to choose him? He's chinese!"

Me: "Ha? Wow, you're definitely racist! I don't like it!"
Him: "No, I am not, it's right though. They're obviously sly or cunning. Don't you see about the case? Much of state money was taken away by them. We're not talking about Billion, it's hundreds Trillion. It's least than "Pribumi" corruptions which only hundreds million or billions rupiah"
Me: "Yes you are! Hmmmm, how could you blame all of the (chinese) people with the acts of -not so- twenty persons? It's not fair though. And you know what? I don't care about the numbers actually. Whatever it takes, corruptions are wrong things to do. And I think it has nothing to do with race though!"

Unity in Diversity as Indonesian Priority

The conversation kept moving, but I personally disappointed to have this racist conversation though. Blaming the chinese won't solve anything, and it felt so wrong for sure. This is not what Indonesia I used to know, which more than 700 ethnics and 1000 dialects. Indonesia that used to have Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or "Unity In Diversity" motto. Indonesia that's known to be polite societies. To all of (chinese) Indonesian people, I personally am sorry for this kind of 'racist' issue. I believe, together we can build our nation for our future generation :)

And one message for all of my muslim friends. I bet you already knew what "Muslims" felt in other countries, right? Muslims that used to be minority, labelled as "Terrorist", even ban to come their home. I didn't think you want to experience that right? So, don't let the minority felt the same way! We are one people, one nation, Indonesia. Do.not.let.them.divide.us. Salam #UnityInDiversity !