Program 2014

The Republic of Indonesia is an archipelago country blessed with various cultures, languages, traditions, and religions. The founding fathers crafted the principle of “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika”, a sentence in Sanskrit which means “unity in diversity.” Sixty-nine years after our independence, this principle remains, but the society is beginning to forget the true meaning of unity in diversity.

In Central Kalimantan there is a philosophy called Huma Betang. Huma Betang means a long house -a traditional house where can be lived by everyone from various backgrounds or in other word “our house together”. It shows that we never lost togetherness values in diversity. We have to embrace the diversity to build a strong nation.

Religion has been sensitive issues in society which, in fact, might lead to misunderstanding and conflicts. The work report of the SETARA Institute (a human right organization) shows in 2012 the events happened 264 times of religious freedom with 371 forms of violence. Start of closure or sealing of houses of worship, discrimination, intolerance to omission. This figure is up from 2011 last year, in which 244 cases were recorded with 299 forms of violence. Cases of violations of freedom of religion / belief are found in nearly all parts of Indonesia. West Java tops the list with 76 events, followed, Aceh, Central Java, East Java and South Sulawesi.

Freedom of religion is one important element of democracy. However, there are still conflicts among religions that happen in Indonesia. As young people, we would like to contribute in the democratic process, which is to strengthen our democracy through educating people about religious tolerance in order to create a better understanding among religious beliefs, because only through tolerance and better understanding that the people of Indonesia can practice their religions freely without fear of being persecuted, since that is how a democracy should be like.

Based on the background, we came up with an idea to make an Interfaith Dialogue Program: Interfaith Youth Forum 2014. Interfaith Youth Forum is an annually forum for Indonesia young leaders initiated by Youth Interfaith Community –that focuses on effort to empower and build the capacity of young people with respect to tolerance issues and interfaith dialogue. The first forum was held in Palembang in 2012 and the second forum was held in Bali in 2013. This year Youth Interfaith Community in collaboartion with Indonesia Youth Dialogue will organize Interfaith Youth Forum 2014 in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan.