Japan can provide fresh ideas to Indonesia

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2008/12/19
Over several years, I have visited Indonesia’s Islamic schools, known as pesantren, and asked students which of the following countries they would choose if they could learn abroad: Japan, the United States, Australia, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. I have visited more than 150 pesantren so far and put the question to students who are as old as junior or senior high school students in Japan.

About 30 percent of the respondents selected Japan. Japan’s image among young Indonesians is fairly good, thanks mainly to the popularity of Japanese animations, manga comic books and electronic products. Japan is closely followed by Australia, a major regional power, in the popularity contest. Australia’s aid program to donate buildings to 300 schools in Indonesia every year is apparently paying off.

Most of the remaining votes are divided between Saudi Arabia, home to the spiritual center of Islam, and Egypt, a powerful Muslim country.

Students choosing Saudi Arabia or Egypt typically say they became interested in these countries after hearing teachers talk about their experiences in studying there. The United States usually receives few, if any, votes. The war in Iraq has fatally tarnished America’s image among students in the moderate Islamic nation.

Many Japanese may not be aware that Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Nearly 90 percent of the nation’s population of more than 200 million is Muslim.

Slightly less than 20 percent of Indonesia’s school-age population is learning at the roughly 14,000 pesantren, which are given the same academic status as that of ordinary schools in the country’s education system. At the great majority of pesantren, which are boarding schools, the ratio of classes in ordinary academic subjects to religious ones is 4 to 6.

Over the past several years, the anti-American creed has been gaining followers rapidly within these schools, which accept many students from poor families. In a survey of students conducted by the State Islamic University two years ago, 86 percent of the respondents said Western civilization was exposing Muslims to bad influences. And 80 percent of the surveyed said the West was attacking Muslims.

Teachers are playing a major role in spreading these views among Indonesian students, whose access to the Internet or television is usually restricted to only once a week. In such a closed learning environment, teachers are the dominant source of information for students. Worried that Westernization could undermine Islamic values, teachers in Indonesia are intensifying their criticism of U.S. political behavior in the international community.

Biased world views among students tend to be exploited by Islamic extremists, whose propaganda asserts that the United States is an enemy of Islam. If Islamic fundamentalism spreads within pesantren, which constitute an important part of Indonesia’s public education system, the very foundation of the country’s moderate Muslim society could be shaken to its core. That could pose a serious security threat also to Japan, which has close ties with Indonesia.

Partly because of concerns about the changing face of religious schools in Indonesia, Japan’s Foreign Ministry has started a program to invite 10 pesantren teachers to the country every year for a stay of about two weeks. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the program. During their stay, the teachers visit various types of junior and senior high schools and universities to exchange opinions. They also visit small factories in towns and some tourist spots like the Todaiji temple in Nara Prefecture. I accompany them on their trips as much as possible. This year’s participants were surprised on their first day in Japan to find that Japanese bring home their garbage. They were also intrigued by the fact that Japanese purify themselves at the entrance of a temple–a religious custom shared by Muslims. Some of their discoveries in the nation have provoked lively discussions among them.

Every year, Indonesian teachers leave some similar comments in writing about their experiences in Japan: “Courtesy and cleanliness, which are taught as part of the code of Islamic morality (in Indonesia), are practiced in Japan even though Japanese schools don’t teach religious subjects.” “It is surprising how Japan has maintained its religious mind despite its economic development.” As they see how Japan, an Asian country like Indonesia, maintains its unique traditions despite the Westernization of its society, many of the Indonesian teachers, during their brief stay in this country, apparently start thinking that Westernization may not necessarily undermine Islamic values.

That means Japan can play a role in stimulating Indonesian teachers to take a fresh look at their views of the world, which might be narrow and biased in some ways. If, after returning home, they share their experiences in Japan with their students, with whom they live under the same roof, that would help the students widen their perspectives.

It is easy to ridicule other people’s prejudices. But what about our own prejudices and misconceptions? In August, a group of Indonesian nurses arrived in Japan under an economic partnership agreement between the two countries, attracting some public attention. Muslims will become an increasingly familiar part of life in this country in coming years. Many Japanese, however, still wrongly believe that Muslims are dangerous people without having any substantial knowledge about them and their religion. Rampant school bullying targeting children of foreign parents and returnee children indicates Japanese are ill-prepared to accept people with different cultural backgrounds.

What is important, after all, is for us all to take advantage of opportunities to visit other countries or receive foreign visitors for efforts to be able to look at things from a broader point of view. Stereotypes and prejudices can only be broken down one by one through direct interactions between people.

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The author is an associate professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and specializes in comparative politics. Kohno was born in 1966 and obtained a doctorate in political science from Ohio State University of the United States. He assumed his current post after serving as a specialist researcher at the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia. He is one of a few Japanese experts on terrorism in Southeast Asia.(IHT/Asahi: December 19,2008)

Courtesy: Asahi Shimbun