Preserving Unity in Diversity

Indonesia is home for 17,508 islands, over 300 native languages, and with a total population of nearly 300 million, This country has become one of the most diverse countries in the world. And with hundreds of ethnicity, you and I might be different, yet we have to preserve peacefulness among us, in other words, a unity in diversity.

Preserving unity in diversity is essential. Diversity is necessary to open our mind, enhance our perspective and capabilities. While a unity will results in the best possible outcome/solution as all these differences integrate at reaching the best answer. Diversity and culture are dependent matter one another. Culture is the total of human creations- intellectual, technical, artistic, physical, and moral. It guides social life, and the things generation must follow and to which they may eventually add. Language, religion, science, art, notions of right and wrong, and explanations of the meaning of life are all parts of culture, and Indonesia is famous for their richness of culture. From Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in Papua, these include the Batak in North Sumatra, the Dayak in Kalimantan, the Ambonese in the Moluccas, the Javanese, the Sundanese, the Balinese, the Acehnese, and the Minangkabau, each with a different language and culture. In this essay, I will explain a point to point on how to preserve the unity in diversity.

First, start with education. We must understand how diverse we are. In Indonesia, there are five recognized religions and hundreds of beliefs. Lately, issues on religion have been on the rise. The core obstacle of this matter is because of Indonesia's lack of education. It causes a shortage of understanding of literacy; thus we tend to believe in a hoax and fake news easily, those two things can divide our nation. Introducing Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in school curriculum can help on combatting fake news. MIL is a concept that has been used by UNESCO to stress the inter-relatedness of competencies regarding information broadly, and media, in particular. These cover human right literacy (especially the right of freedom of speech), news literacy (including literacy about journalistic standards and ethics), etc. 

Second, foster ourselves the sense of tolerance. We should learn to value and experience the abundance of Indonesia diversity found within other races, religions, and cultures. Appreciating it means trying to find the best in all people. Tolerance means that we don't need to accept other's people beliefs or behaviors, but we must respect every person's freedom of conscience. 

And lastly, if we, the people, can practice points as mentioned earlier, the government also can help us to preserve the unity in diversity by abolishing the blasphemy law. In my defense, God doesn't need human protection, and blasphemy law is often misused and abused.  Statistics collected by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network show that aggressive Islamists have targeted at least 60 people since September 2016 with a battery including online threats, verbal harassment, and physical intimidation. Until the Indonesian government ends the abusive blasphemy law and guarantees that the law enforcement protects the rights of Indonesians rather than pander to the objections of those who deny those rights, a unity in diversity won't attain.

These three points to be expected to embody unity and diversity.