Endy M Bayuni – Did you know that 2012 is The International Year of the Rhino? No, you didn't miss the news. We, the media, did. Few, if any mainstream media sources (including this publication), gave the story a miss when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared it in a speech to mark World Environment Day on Tuesday.
Indonesia, home to two of the world's five remaining species of rhino, is spearheading this year an international campaign to save the stocky, thick-skinned animal from extinction. Animal groups say there are only 50 Javan rhinos and around 200 Sumatran rhinos left in the wild. No one has sighted a Java rhino for a while, but the only clue that this animal still exists is the occasional discovery of its dung, so we are told.
Environmental groups appreciate the President's gesture. Sadly, however, the public cares far less about the fate of the rhino, judging by the lack of media publicity.
President Yudhoyono would probably have generated far more public interest if he had declared The Year of Thick-Skinned People instead. No disrespect to the rhinos – they were born that way – but such a declaration is bound to hit home to a nation that is becoming more and more thick-skinned in defense of its own good.
Indonesia is still smarting from last week's shaming at the UN Human Rights Council when the government presented a report that painted too-rosy-a-picture, defying the reality on the ground. Several governments present at the hearing in Geneva of Indonesia's four-yearly review of its human rights situation pressed the Indonesian delegation on the questions of religious intolerance and the security situation in Papua.
While Indonesia's human rights failings are common knowledge, it is amazing to see how thick-skinned officials can be as they remain in constant denial. This week, they were joined by religious leaders like Hasyim Muzadi of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), who claimed that Indonesia was the "most tolerant nation in the world"; and Tengku Zulkarnaen, the deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Ulema Council, who called on the national security apparatus to "crush" Indonesians who were bad-mouthing the country's human rights record abroad. He called them "whores", according to the Republika newspaper.
At least the Presidential Office admitted on Wednesday that the security situation in Papua has become unstable, contradicting the government's report in Geneva a week earlier, which claimed that the Papuan situation was firmly under control. "Unstable" doesn't even describe the situation now, with reports of daily shootings this past week, some against security officers, but others perpetrated by them. On Wednesday, a civilian was found dead after soldiers ran amok in Wamena following the death of a colleague.
The problem with this attitude of constant denial is that it is preventing the government from taking the necessary steps to address the problem. If you don't own up to the problems in the first place, how can you expect to find the solutions? Admitting that the condition is unstable may not go far enough to reach a solution. How about describing it as a rapid descent into violence? Maybe then we can seriously start searching for a solution.
Further evidence of society's rising intolerance comes from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); I know them enough of the center's staff to vouch that they are not whores. A CSIS survey has shown that while most Indonesians had no problem living in the same neighborhood as people from other faiths, nearly 70 percent of them said they would not want to have other religions' places of worship in their neighborhoods and nearly 80 percent said they opposed inter-religious marriage.
Tasikmalaya this week becomes the latest district in the country to go the Sharia way in defiance of the Constitution, which bans discriminatory treatment against anyone. Typically, it singles out women as prime targets by requiring them, Muslims or non-Muslims, to wear the veil. The introduction of the Islamic law comes with the provision of establishing a force of morality police to ensure compliance. Aceh, the first and only province in the country that has embraced Sharia, this week began stopping men and women who wore clothes deemed too tight.
When a state starts sponsoring discriminatory acts and promoting intolerance, there is no stopping it. This nation is doomed.
The Constitutional Court ruled this week that President Yudhoyono was within his constitutional prerogative in creating and appointing deputy ministers to support the work of his Cabinet, but it faulted him for limiting the appointments to career bureaucrats. These are political appointments and the President should not limit himself in making his choices. No harm has been done with this ruling, as the President can keep his deputy ministers; but still, losing a case in a court of law over a constitutional issue further undermines his credibility and ability to govern.
Interestingly, a survey released by the Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate showed that 80 percent of Indonesians believed that the country could become a superpower. In the absence of a strong economy and a powerful military, Indonesia is far from acquiring that status. But with its huge population – the fourth-largest in the world – and a decent economy and stable politics, Indonesia can be a regional power. To become a power to be reckoned with, Indonesia must also possess other credentials, such as a substantive democracy, respect for human rights and tolerance. Being thick-skinned is certainly not one of them.