Identity politics

Identity politics dangerous
Ignas Kleden, The Center for East Indonesian Affairs, Jakarta,




Humanitarianism and humanism have been controversial ever since 
post-modernist theorists tried to debunk the universality of their
values.

This is demonstrated in that critique that the conception of
humanitarianism  and humanism entails a wide range of class, gender,
educational and  psycho-physical bias, which had been forgotten because
the conceptions have  been taken as something given without considering
the historical context in  which they were produced.

Humanism of the Renaissance, for example, proposed to take man as the
measure  of all things. The human was seen as opposed to, or at least
additional to  the divine as the principle of moral, artistic and
political expression and  as a repository of virtues. The idea was
further developed by 18th century  encyclopedia-philosophers in France
who propounded forcefully that men were  the sole and sufficient source
of all values. To that extent the idea was not
so much an opposition to the religious values as a strong opposition to
the  belief that the human condition was merely a fallen situation and
therefore  human development and salvation could only be provided by a
total reliance  upon religious devotion and dedication.

The modern idea of humanitarianism originates in some philosophical
thoughts  both among the rationalists as well as among the romanticists.
Julien Benda,  a philosopher of intellectual betrayal, once reminded us
to distinguish  carefully between the abstract notion of humanitarianism
and the concrete  one. The first emphasizes the sensitiveness toward the
whole form of human  condition, abstract virtue of duty toward one's
neighbors, and compassionate  zeal toward humanity as a whole. In
contrast to that the concrete notion advocates love for a concrete
individual here and now, an idea which corresponds to what we usually
understand as charity.

The question is of course: who are men after all? The basic tenet of
renaissance-humanism says men are the measure of all things. In this
conception it is taken for granted that the notion "men" automatically
includes other notions such as women, children, the senile, the
handicapped,  the marginalized, the illiterate, the poor and the
landless.

This, however, is not always the case. In reality, humanism can easily
discriminate against those who are not men in the above sense. Men are
male,  well educated, landed or propertied adults, who usually become
part of  political power, belong to a certain social standing, and make
up a social  class based on economic and cultural appropriation.

One of the temptations which usually make people neglect a humane
attitude  toward other people is the orientation toward identity. The
acquaintance with  the other can be conducted only on the basis of one's
name, the place one  comes from, the profession or job one is doing, or
ethnic group one is  supposed to belong to and the role one assumes.

In Indonesia, another important item of one's identity is one's
religious or  denominational affiliation.

Can we in hindsight speak of history of identity? During colonial times
the  Dutch colonial government divided the population of the Dutch East
Indies  into three main categories with different privileges, namely the
European and  Euro-Asian, the foreign oriental (Chinese, Indians, Arabs)
and the pribumi or  indigenous people. This division of population
implied a social division of  labor within trade, and a division of
privileges pertaining to civil rights  and obligations. The remnant of
this ethnically stratified division of labor  can be seen in the present
habit to look at Indonesian people as the pri (pribumi) and the non-pri
(non indigenous, mainly those of Chinese origin).

In the first postindependence years, Indonesian people used to look at
one  another as those belonging to the co and non-co. Whereas the co
were seen as  those who chose to maintain the old status quo, while
collaborating with the  colonial government, the non-co considered
themselves revolutionary  republicans who were determined to say no to
any kind of negotiation with the  colonial government and believed that
an independent state was the final goal  of their struggle.

After the end of the Sukarno administration, the New Order government
divided  people into two main categories, namely those who were
supposedly involved in  the attempted coup of Sept. 30, 1965, and those
who were allegedly  "clean".

This division had terrible consequences, because the label terlibat
(involved) implied "civil death" of the persons concerned who were
practically put outside political and legal protection.

After political reform in 1998, the political division of the population
became more complicated. There is a division between the followers of
the New  Order and the reformists in Jakarta, there is also a division
between locals  and immigrants in conflict-ridden areas, and there is a
division and even  separation between Muslim Ambonese and Christian
Ambonese in Ambon.

Identity turns out to be not always a signifier of the rights one is
entitled  to but also a signal for condemnation and disapprobation one
has unduly to  bear. This becomes all the more true if identity is
treated as final,  essentialism in nature, and can be packaged in
permanent stereotypes. Indeed,  identity is that which makes somebody
what she or he is and not another  thing. It differentiates, and makes
one different from another. However, this  becomes a danger when
identity metamorphoses into a sort of pigeonholing complex, whereby you
put someone into a certain pigeonhole without providing  him with the
possibility and freedom to get out of it.

In that connection, the identity politics in Indonesia should be
counterbalanced by a new humanism and humanitarianism, which can turn
around  the significance of identity and identification. It is not
identity which  makes a man and a woman human, but the other way around,
it is humanity which  makes an identity a man or a woman. Abstract as
this may seem, it is very  concrete in the practical experience of
everyday life.

If religious instruction in religious communities taught the students to
respect and to love other people not as human beings in the first place
but  as members of their own community, this would strengthen the sense
of  identity at the cost of the compassionate zeal for humanity.

Since religion still assumes an important and strategic role in
Indonesian  society, religious instruction determines to a great extent
whether respect  for human beings becomes an abstract matter or a
concrete action, which  contributes to the establishment of everlasting
peace or the waging of  protracted conflict.