Indonesia had gone through tremendous social conflicts right at the end of the second millennium. We saw conflicts in Maluku, Poso, and Sampit. The unimaginable things happened during the conflicts. Those gory images still freshly minted in our mind that caused us to be jittery. Those conflicts are very traumatic that last year we still saw tears came down from the little children whose parents were violently killed. But, those tears we saw last represent something bigger than their suffering. Those tears represent peace. For the last ten years, since second Malino accord, there has been no conflict in Maluku.
Looking back, OMC 8 was significant for us in FICA because it taught us about our past sins and how to create a better future. There were plenty of sins to go around. Starting with the New Order government to the Church should look back and confess our sins. The New Order regime, for example, developed a concept called “Trilogi Pembangunan” or Tri-development-focus. It was an excellent-well-meaning concept that says the government wanted to maintain political stability, to achieve high economic growth, and to spread the capital gained as widely as possible.
The New Order wanted to achieve quick results. It ignored who they hurt, oppressed, threatened, and destroyed to reach their targets. To deliver the growth number, they used their power to force the people to leave their distinct cultural identity and to be governed militaristically from provinces to villages. For example, government regulated that there were no secret wood (UU Kehutanan 1967). All woods belong to government and would be given to businessman to be developed.
We, the Church, were not innocent either. Being situated in the largest Muslim country, the Church in Indonesia had been called for an honorable but challenging task. The Indonesian Church is called to proclaim the Kingdom of God out of our love to God and the Indonesian people. We felt a strong support from the New Order regime since it depended so much on the support of Western countries. With this headwind, we became really aggressive and sometimes really offensive.
Our speaker told us that we had “a Mouse Chase” or “Uber – Uber” theology. We were aggressively wanted to make everybody Christian. We set out a target number of converts. We were constantly held altar calls in big stadiums, TV stations, radios, that Christianity was reduced to be nothing more than once-in-a-lifetime-confession. The same guy told us that at the end of 2001 our theology changed to become “Babak Belur” or “defeated withdrawal” from public space. We focused on serving one another inside our own community and church. Although our numbers were small, we still managed to hate and maintain costly conflict between churches.
After 10 years, we could honestly say the second Malino accord have ended the conflict in Maluku. There are many reasons why the second Malino accord is successful but one fundamental thing emerged as the reason. This second accord fundamentally agrees that there had to be a creation of new reality in Maluku where everybody, the government, the Christians, and the Muslims, cannot use violence to obtain its agenda such as evangelization or dakwah. To achieve its agenda, each party has to be very sensitive to the concern and culture of the local people.
This was significantly different solution. It shows the biblical principle of conflict resolution that was famously summarized by Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that “Power without Love is reckless and abusive; Love without Power is sentimental and anemic”. Just like our Lord Jesus has demonstrated to us time and time again, although He is powerful over us He did not force us to confess and obey Him. Instead, He died for us to show His unattainable power and His unsurpassed love for us.
The second Malino accord can serve as a template beyond conflict resolution. Its principle should be used as an engagement model for Christians in Indonesia. Christians should be willing to share the suffering and even willing to suffer for those who are lowly and broken. We should constantly aware that the ends do not justify the means. We should be prepared to help and partner for the long haul. We should be ready to die for others even though they would never be a Christian.