Name : Annisa Aulia

Class : HTB14 - 015201400012

What Does Tolerance And Diversity Really Mean In My

Daily Life

I used to learn and introduced by word of Tolerance since I was little probably since I could
understand what people talking about. In every phase of my entire life, word of tolerance
always has the same understanding for me except for what it is really mean.That mean what I
understand about tolerance is exactly the basic definition of tolerance, which is not far from
how we committed to respect human dignity and also having fair and objective attitude
toward other opinions, beliefs and practices different from ones own. But then I realize what
I understand about tolerance is always develop deeper time by time from basic to the core
both explicit or implicit. It is influence by the environment, experience, circumstances, and
people surrounding me.

Lets take a look of my interpretation of tolerance from the very begining which was on my
childhood phase. In the past I used to practice my knowledge of tolerance from my family.
Ive been told by my parent that each people is different. In this world we are born in the
various types of colour. It could be white or black colour of skin, could be Javanese or
Sundanese colour of originality, or even could be having different colour of belief. Those are
the things that make every individuals come with their own uniqueness. But different or
uniqueness is not always means we are divided into group and fight to each other. Different
what I know at that time was human is so colourfull and it was very fun to learned for
understand the different itself while played with friends in kendergarten. Its mean that we
learn something new about tolerancy or being different in daily life from what we did through
played with friends and followed by environment that probably teacher teach us in the class.
In my kindergarten I was remembered having one friend that a little different from other
friends, which he cant speak yet and doesnt want to played together with other, he only
want together with his mom. So at that time we keep always ask him to play with without
dicriminating him based on what he has done. That was my first lesson being tolerance in the
kindergarten phase.

Another lessons is coming from my home circumstances. When it back to my experienced of

tolerance in the kindergarten it was actualy not really deeper in terms of religion since I had
school on the islamic kindergarten. But then in my neighborhood I had many kind of
neighbors coming from different background such as ras, nationality, and including religion. I
remember at that time I was live in Bogor before moved to many different places after, I did
not really understand what it was. What I know that when I learn to had my first time fasting
in Ramadhan, one of my neighbor didnt join fasting and I tought they did something wrong
out of what has been taught by my parents. Came back home I asked my parents, and they
explain that my neighboor having different kind of religion with us and it is normal because
religion consist of many kind and different in the way of loving God. At that time I didnt
think so much and complecated about why human is divided into so many kind and types. I
just enjoying my time playing and be fun for a moment, until I reach my youngsters
perception about what is tolerance trully means for me in this age.

By now, many things just feels like pop up into my head about what is tolerance trully means.
Because in this time many things happened and for further it change my perception about
word of tolerance and how it applied in life by everbody including me. But before going
further about what was changed during the time there is something that I specially want to
emphasize. Before, I used to be thankful and grateful or even be proud to say that I am
Indonesia, that I have change to live in this beautiful country where different is common and
it even make us more strong and beauty with the colour among us, it create spirit of
nationality inside. Because we can not say I am Javanese or I am Medanese but instead
we say I am Indonesian. That is what make us growth strong with sense of belonging inside
our hearts. But what I realize now is every thing change into something that is not suppose to
be like that. I feel that what comes to reality today is that the majority of Indonesian people
lose their spirit of tolerance. I think that most of us now lose the spirit of togetherness, as well
as we do not make Pancasila as the basis of life of Indonesian nation or in other words people
now a days like to act by themselves so that it is create intolerance appear in the life of
Indonesian society. I feel so bad when realize that little by little we are turn to be more
individualistic and lose our sense of belonging as an Indonesian. We start to think that one
perception is better than the other. We start to impose that ours is the most credible and right
thing among the other. It start to make me wonder Do we gonna keep this sense of
nationality by putting Pancasila as the guide? Or we just gonna start using our ego above
everything?. This questions start to bothering my perception about tolerancy in Indonesia.

I am hard to say that so many cases of intolerance start emarging in the society. Indonesian is
a country in which we are very famous in terms of success in maintaining tolerance among
tribes, religions, and other things between Indonesian citizens. We are known for being
hospitalize and uphold the mutual respect for each other's differences. Last we known as the
country that very concern about tolerancy among people religion which so many country
could not mantaining the religiousity tolerancy among the people. Many country admirer
Indonesia for the tolerancy culture in terms of religion they want to learn how we could
established peace above diversity. But now do we still have those kind of act in our daily life
as an Indonesian?. I dont think most of us realize and trully care about it. I found that many
factor affect this intolerance appear inside the Indonesian communities. Most of it rise
because of the interest of some parties that want to take control and change Indonesia turn
into what they want. Religious intolerance starting to be threats for the unity and integrity of
the Indonesian nation. This threat little by little starting to come up to the society, shows from
the data 59 per cent Indonesians are starting to be intolerant towards minorities. Religious
radicalism is on the rise. At least 11.5 million people are "spiritually" ready to change
Indonesian society. The last election was poisoned by religious conflict. For Sinta Nuriyah
Wahid, " radical groups have their own political agenda, namely the Islamic State of
Indonesia. Radical movements and the spirit of intolerance have infiltrated the daily life of
Indonesian society. Only 11 per cent of respondents expressed strong rejection of the idea of
establishing an Islamic nation," Sinta said. What Sinta found is prove that Indonesia began to
be wary of the parties who want to divide the spirit of tolerance among religious communities
in Indonesia. Throughout the election campaign, the most extremist Islamic leaders tried to
influence the vote by manipulating the religious sentiment of voters. This led to many street
demonstrations, which often turned violent. This sentiment starting to merge the political
interests towards religion becoming tool for divide Indonesian people. Jakarta especially is
considered a political trendsetter and the whole nation is watching the election to get a sense
of how deep a role religion now plays in national politics. Not that Indonesia needs more of
it. Religious intolerance is already on the rise in recent years, with many minorities becoming
the target of attacks. The ugly election campaign in Jakarta is bound to put more pressure on
the religious minorities and further strain on overall interfaith relations. But we have to
rememember although nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia's population are Muslims, Indonesia is
not an Islamic state, a decision its founding fathers consciously made upon independence in
1945 to placate religious minorities like Christians and Hindus, particularly from eastern
Indonesia. These eastern provinces would have happily opted out of the new republic and
formed their own independent states if the former Dutch colony had gone Islamic. Indonesia's
secular status has since survived many tests, including a series of armed rebellions and
terrorist attacks in the name of Islam. But now the battle by the Islamist proponents is
primarily being waged in the public space. With the help of the Internet, which has created an
open marketplace for ideologies, this fight has become about winning the hearts, minds and
soul of the people.

In this time, religion seems growth to be a name that seems hard, rough and very cruel,
because religious people seem a lot of malignant and appear with a face of violence that
makes the fear, frightening and worried. In recent years, there have been many inter-religious
conflicts, intolerance and violence in the name of religion, so the realities of religious life that
arise are mutual suspicion, misunderstanding, unbelief that will eventually lead to an
unharmonious life. What true is religion supposed to not mutually degrading or dropping
each other based on personal percepation about who is right and wrong. The ideal religious
tolerance should be established by the active participation of all members of the religious
community living in pluralism in order to achieve the same goals on the basis of mutuality,
respect and mutual understanding of the implementation of certain rituals and doctrines of
each religion. In summary, as global citizens in the interconnected world, we have an ethical
responsibility to learn from each other and develop empathetic attitudes toward different
views and beliefs. From that case I learned that religion is divided into different kind of belief
but what I realize is eventhough we are different in terms of the way we love and worship
God, but what trully is we are still having same belief which is trusting that God exist in this
world, that is more important to be hold rather than thinking about the different among other
religion. And understanding that God never ask people to fight against each other in the
wrong path, on the contrary God ask people to love each other and appreciate the difference
with the positive way rather than mutually destroyed other choice and beliefs. In Islam what I
learned is to focus on good things of what we have choose rather than disturbing others
choices. Conflicts do often arise in terms of creed or belief but they are not made as a debate,
there is still a value of humanity and tolerance that can be used as a unifying of the
difference. Lakum Dinukum Waliyadin, for you your religion, for me my religion (Surat Al
Kafirun: 6). Perhaps something that can be learned is that other people do not need to know
what your religion is, but others just want to know morals.

Tolerance and respect for a difference will give a shady view of the sharp distinction of
religion. In Islam, difference is a necessity and a gift from God to be grateful for. Instead of
making a difference as a contentious controversy to find the right and the wrong. For my self,
I like to starting small thing of being tolerance from my self by focusing to applied goodness
of life in every little things I do in my daily life. Means that I keep always try to do
something good, hearing good things, and speak only about good things, which gonna help us
be more positive and keep tolerance among the other. And what I hold right now is when we
think and help other without discriminating against their background, God will always
support and taking care of ourself, but when we only think about ourself God will help and
support other who trully need. So, respecting the differences is what makes tolerance keep
exist inside the society for a better future of peacefullness in the world.