Jakarta – Radicalism in schools is believed to have reached alarming levels, with a recent survey finding almost half of the students in Greater Jakarta willing to be involved in acts of religious violence.
But, some Muslim students and teachers are casting doubt on the survey's validity, saying that they denounce violence and believe that the state's ideology of tolerance, Pancasila, still remains relevant today.
Erwin Maulana, an 11th grader at SMAN 6 senior high school in Bekasi, told The Jakarta Post last week that he disagreed with all acts of religious violence.
"Rather than keep fighting with each other we must establish an effective interfaith dialogue to clear things up and to find a middle ground that everybody can agree on," he said.
Erwin is not alone. Many others shared his opinion. "I believe violence and anarchy should not be used to express discontent toward the government and to attack people of different beliefs," Feri Harfan of SMAN 78 senior high school in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta, said.
Feri and Erwin are active in their school's extracurricular class on Islamic spirituality, known as Rohis. Feri said that he just held a two-day Islamic Arts Festival that included various contests between schools in West Jakarta.
"These kinds of positive activities are important for educating teenagers in how to channel their creativity and make their voices heard without resorting to violence," Opik Haswari, a teacher of Islam at Feri's school, told the Post on Saturday.
According to Opik, teachers should be responsible for continually disseminating ideas about diversity and pluralism as a way to counter youth radicalization.
He said that there was no need for the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia. "Indonesia is a nation with such great diversity. Forcing all citizens to accept Islam as the state ideology is not the way to go."
"An enforcement to accept a single state ideology would be just like the New Order," said Achmad Safari, the deputy headmaster of curriculum at SMAN 70 senior high school in Bulungan, South Jakarta.
Both Opik and Achmad agreed that Pancasila was still relevant as state ideology. "Maybe those who call for the replacement of Pancasila with Islamic ideology never realized that there are many Islamic values within each of Pancasila's five principles," Opik said.
Opik and Achmad's views provide a glimpse of hope after a recent survey painted a bleak picture of the country's education.
A recent survey by the Institution for Islam and Peace Studies (LaKIP)showed that 25.8 percent of students and 21.1 percent of teachers in Greater Jakarta deemed Pancasila no longer relevant as the state ideology.
The same survey also showed that, in the same region, 48.9 percent of students were willing to be involved in acts of religious violence and that 41.1 percent of students were willing to be involved in vandalizing houses of worship of other religions.
The survey, which was conducted between October 2010 and January 2011 involving 611,678 students and 2,639 teachers in Greater Jakarta, was released on the heels of deadly acts of terror involving young Indonesians, including high school graduate Dani Dwi Permana, the suicide bomber in the JW Marriott attack in 2009, and Pepi Fernando, a university graduate who planned to blow up a church in Tangerang.
The survey's findings shocked many. Pariyono, the deputy headmaster for student affairs at SMAN 6 senior high school in Bekasi, said, "I just don't believe that almost 50 percent of students in Jakarta would approve of acts of religious violence."
"From my experience as a teacher for more than 10 years, I just don't believe that the conditions are that bad," Pariyono said.
LaKIP's Bambang Pranowo defended the survey's findings. "I guarantee that the results are correct and not engineered," he told the Post. He said the survey did find that the majority of students still believed in Pancasila, but the fact that 25 percent should be considered a wake-up call for the government. (mim)