Where do These Radicals Come From?

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September 19, 2011 | by Nathanael Gratias

Indonesian police stand guard after clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in Ambon, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept 11, 2011. Officials say clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in eastern Indonesia have left three people dead and more than a dozen injured. (AP Photo)

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It is surprising that only few of my friends here in the United States know much about Indonesia. They are aware that there’s country called Indonesia, but that is all. They do not know that Indonesia is world’s fourth most populous country or that it is world’s largest Muslim country. In a discussion on terrorism to commemorate the 9/11 attack, for instance, it was shocking to me that all they knew about terrorism in Indonesia was the first Bali bombing. There was no mention of the Christmas Eve, the Marriott, or the Australian Embassy bombings. I felt compelled to share how Indonesia has also been the victim of terrorism, just like (if not worse than) the United States had been.

 On the other hand, those who know about Indonesia seem to have some level of knowledge on inter-religion dynamics in the country. Issues like religious tolerance and minority protection interest them greatly. As a result, sometimes I get questions about religious violence in Indonesia, from people dying in conflicts in Poso to more seemingly trivial violence such as actions of radical groups vandalizing discotheques or beating people. Mostly their concluding statements are, “What is wrong with these people? Why can they be so evil?” I believe many Indonesians share the same assumption pertaining the radicals. Their violence does not make any sense, so it must be they are by nature evil, right?  

The Power of Situation

 It’s implied when someone asks, “What’s wrong with these people?” is that evil is only be done by bad people. Should that be the case, good people would rarely do bad things and bad people would continue doing bad things. Is that really the case? Let’s consider two stories.

 The first comes from psychologist Philip Zimbardo. In his “prison experiment,” people were randomly assigned the role of prisoners and guards. While the purpose of the experiment was to study the effect of role-playing among psychologically normal individuals, things went downhill fast. Guards became sadistic and prisoners got depressed. Zimbardo, who had planned for the experiment to run for two weeks, stopped it after just six days.

 Another study is from Yale University’s Stanley Milgram. His experiment was related to obedience. An authority figure (the experimenter) asked normal individuals to deliver electric shock to another individual whenever he failed to memorize information. There were levels of shock that could be delivered, which ranged from low voltage to a supposedly lethal level. Prior to the study, he surveyed psychologists to ask how many they thought would deliver the lethal dosage. The experts — probably believing good people can never do bad things — confidently predicted only 1 percent would deliver the shock. They were wrong: it was more than 60 percent.

 Those studies are just two of many studies demonstrating the power of situation. Given the situation, good people can do bad things, just as bad people can do good things. Rather than asking what is wrong with the radicals, a more proper question might be something like “What it is in the society that make these people do such evil?”  

Our Society

 It is impossible to list the roots of all the evils we have today, but at least two must be mentioned: the state and our ignorance. First, our government lacks political will to deal with radicalism. The light sentence for the Cikeusik murderers and the government inaction in GKI Yasmin show that blatantly. A government plays a significant role in creating the structure of the society for its citizens. To use the United States as example, it did not make overt racism fade (though it still exists) by doing nothing. The country took action by proposing bills and by controlling racist groups. This, unfortunately, has not happened in Indonesia yet.

 Second, the ignorance of the people and society itself encourage people to do evil. What is obvious about our country is that we tend to take pride in our religious harmony. Since our independence, we have told both foreigners and ourselves that we live in a harmonious society. It is hard to say if that is more of a reality or a past romanticism. The fact is, we have tolerance problem right now, right here.

 It is by this ignorance that we are creating a society of “no problem.” Whenever a violence happens we look at other people, see that they live their lives as usual, see that they still say “we live in a harmonious society,” and then we begin to view the problem as longer an issue. We live peacefully in our ignorance, but certainly would not be happily ever after.

 The challenge to make changes is not only about how to push the government, but also about how to erode ignorance. There may be times that we cannot rely on the government to influence the society we live in, as it might be too weak or too indecisive. But there will never be times that we cannot rely on people — if only we awaken them in time to realize the real condition of our society and understand what is at stake. Because maybe, it is not about what is in the head that makes a radical, but rather what is in society.

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