Michael Richardson, Manado – In a country where official statistics show Muslims forming 85 percent of the 200 million population, a striking feature of the buildings lining both sides of the road on the one-hour drive between Manado and Bitung, the two main towns of North Sulawesi Province, is the prevalence of churches and chapels.
On many stretches of the road, travelers can see a Christian place of worship every few hundred meters. By contrast, mosques are few and far between.
For Harry Tilanga, a Protestant who works as an accountant but drives visitors around the province on weekends to earn extra money, the fact that Christians account for an overwhelming majority of the 2.5 million inhabitants of North Sulawesi is a source of comfort.
"We get along all right with Muslims," he said. "But given what has been happening elsewhere in Indonesia, we don't want Islam to get any stronger here." Several outbreaks of mob violence in recent months in various parts of Indonesia quickly assumed an interreligious or interethnic edge.
In such incidents, Muslims have often been pitted against minority Christians, ethnic Chinese or the police.
The incidents have raised concerns that the delicate fabric of tolerance and unity in the world's fourth most populous country, where hundreds of different ethnic and tribal groups are spread over 13,000 islands, may be tearing apart.
"What is happening to our nation, which has always taken pride in its pluralistic society," The Jakarta Post asked in an editorial Saturday. "Compared with other religiously and ethnically diverse countries, Indonesia can still be proud of its ability to foster harmony among its many diverse groups. But it would be wrong to dismiss these riots as simply local incidents." Some Indonesian social scientists and analysts say the underlying causes of the disturbances are loss of faith in the government, as well as frustration over the gaps between rich and poor as the country relies increasingly on the free market and private sector to spur economic growth.
Moreover, the government is imposing ever-tighter political restrictions before legislative elections in May and a meeting of the electoral college in March 1998 to name a president for the next five years.
Analysts worry that if Jakarta continues that course, it may lead to more violent explosions.
"In the absence of appropriate channels for people to air their grievances or aspirations," said an Indonesian sociologist, Hotman Siahaan, "they will turn to violence."
Jakarta experienced its worst rioting in 20 years last July, sparked by government and police involvement in the removal of Megawati Sukarnoputri from the leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party - one of three political groups allowed to contest elections.
In his annual budget speech Monday, President Suharto announced measures to further reduce poverty in Indonesia and bridge the gap between rich and poor.
He said that overall political stability and security "continue to be well under control."
But he also warned that in a "political year," the country must avoid "an uncontrolled situation, clashes and animosity among ourselves. This certainly is unhealthy and even endangers our nation."
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas sought to put the recent troubles into perspective.
"What is important is for us and for our neighbors to realize that what is happening here is not unique," he said. "Of course modernization will exact its price as it has exacted its price in other societies, too. Why should Indonesia be different?"
Riots the day after Christmas in Tasikmalaya, in the western part of the main island of Java, were triggered by reports that several teachers from a Muslim boarding school were beaten by the police, apparently in reprisal for the school's punishment of a son of one of the officers.
Thousands of Muslims rioted in the streets of Tasikmalaya, burning dozens of police stations, churches, shops, banks, hotels and factories.
Four persons died, eight were injured. Government estimates put the damage at $36 million.
Last week, five persons were killed near Singkawang in West Kalimantan on Borneo island after a settler from Madura island off Java reportedly stabbed two indigenous Dayak tribesmen. More than 5,000 people of the Maduran ethnic group, who moved to sparsely populated West Kalimantan in a government resettlement program, temporarily fled the riot area, seeking safety in nearby military bases and towns.
An earlier riot, in October in the town of Situbondo in east Java, was evidently a reaction to what was seen by local Muslims as excessively lenient treatment given by the courts to a Muslim heretic on trial for blasphemy.
The mob burned 25 churches as well as other buildings. Five Christians died in one blazing church.
A court official said Thursday that the first trial of the Situbondo rioters had ended with five men receiving between seven and ten months in jail for burning a church, Reuters reported from Jakarta. The charges for which they were tried carried a maximum penalty of 12 years. Analysts said that the relatively light sentences appeared to be an attempt by the authorities to defuse tension.