There is an article titled, “For Ahmadiyah in Indonesia, Persecution Remains Unaddressed” by Andreyka Natalegawa (https://jakartaglobe.id/news/persecution-of-ahmadi-muslims-in-indonesia-remains-unaddressed/), that telling us about the discrimination of Ahmadiyah community. We can know that a lot of people don’t like the Ahmadiyah community because one of the people from Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia said, “Attacks against Ahmadis occur in many places, the most severe and frequent of which happen in West Java”, in the article. The writer also mentioned some other cases such as the sealing of the mosque, the discrimination in the workplace. As Indonesian, we should understand the meaning of ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’, which means that we have to unite despite many differences in Indonesia. Ahmadiyah community should not be discriminated because they are one of the religions in Indonesia too. The discrimination is proof where people of Indonesia are still selfish, and shallow-minded. Just because they are the majority, they don’t have the privilege/right to discriminate the minority, which in this case, the Ahmadiyah community.
The main thing that was discussed here is the discrimination and the government’s response to that discrimination. As I mentioned before, the discrimination was not just happened in the religion zone, but also the social zone. It affects how the people of the community get a good position in their career too. “We are also seeing significant pressure against Ahmadiyah students and teachers in schools”, said one of them. It informs us that the education zone was also involved here. The second one is the government’s response. The government officials don’t have enough strict rules against the discrimination for religions. They also have the 2008 Joint Decree of the Minister of Religious Affairs that addresses the status of Ahmadiyah communities in Indonesia. They even couldn’t make any identity cards in Indonesia. Thus, this discrimination is very terrible.
This article was made especially for people in Indonesia –Jakarta, the government, and also the police of Indonesia. It criticises people in Indonesia except for the Ahmadiyah community that people should have a little respect for them. In the article, one of the community emphasizes the ‘gotong-royong’ in Indonesia. It was also said that “Despite our differences, we must not threaten or harm others”. It also criticises the government and police, because they work so badly for the Ahmadiyah community. They are afraid to make society rage by not working on their side. So in this case, we could tell that the government and the police are bias.
Andreyka Natalegawa as the writer secretly tells us –the readers, that he and the community are disappointed with people thinking and doing the discrimination towards the Ahmadiyah community. They are disappointed with the government more. They couldn’t have the same rights like the others. Aside from that, they also hope that there will be a change in the way that those people look upon the community. They hope that people will respect them more as if they are one of them.
To conclude, I really agree that we must respect each other and not discriminating minorities. We have to unite despite of our differences. ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ is Indonesia’s symbol. If we are the people of Indonesia, then we have to understand our symbol and applicate it through our lives, by not attacking each other, and help each other.
