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There are many things in life that we can select. For
example, as long as we have enough resources we can
select what we eat for lunch or dinner. We can also
select what clothes to wear, books to read or car to
drive. Our resources such as money and power will
enable us to do that.
But
there are things in life where we don't have much
freedom to select no matter how much resources we
have. The obvious example is our parents. One may wish
to have wealthy parents, but as long as he was born
into and raised by another family, his wish is nothing
but empty hope. Regardless the bulk resources one has,
he can never change such reality. The best he can do
is to accept the reality and work to serve the best
interest of himself, his parents and the people around
him.
There is another thing that we don't have much freedom
in selecting what we want: our neighbors. One may be
able to choose people to live with or associated with.
But all of them are still people, his neighbors. What
neighbors mean are all people, not certain
people who live in our neighborhood. There is a
proverb that goes, “Do unto your neighbors what
they want them to do for you.” This means that
do unto all people, not only to the people
around us such as closed friends or family members.
When
it comes to this matter, therefore, it becomes a
binary choice, either one must live with people or not
at all. One may have abundant resources, but one
cannot choose to live with aliens or animals without
affecting his being. One may decide to live in a
jungle or an isolated island, away from human beings
but as we have seen from the movie Cast Away,
what one gets will be a total alienation.
The
complexity of life has often limited our horizon in
understanding who our neighbors are and what the best
we can do for them are. Even worse, some people not
only fail to understand the real meaning of neighbors
but also develop an attitude that tends to choose who
will be their neighbors. In case they cannot choose
their neighbors, they will define who will be their
neighbors and if necessary change other people's
beings to be suitable to their definition.
The
end of humanity is if people start thinking uniformity
as the golden rule and imposing the rule to others. By
thinking uniformity as the golden rule, one
automatically defines who will be his neighbors and
who will be not. In other words, he will build strict
boundaries in his life as to which people he can
associated with and to which people he cannot. In such
case, the person not only fails to understand the real
meaning of neighbors but also falls short to
comprehend his own being.
Such
ways of thinking and life can also happen to a group
of people. A group of people can build strict
boundaries and apply them to their neighbors. Once
they impose their rules to others strictly, the
humanity is essentially vanished. Take for example a
simple case of myself who is studying economics. Once
I build a boundary in which only people who are
studying economics to be my neighbors and impose my
rules to them and to the people who are not studying
economics, what my life would be? Nothing is but
misery. There are many things outside of economics
which are interesting and resorting myself to only one
part of the world would be a loss.
The
problem with a very diverse nation such as Indonesia
is how to find people with great sense of humanity and
unity. People tend to ignore or less appreciate the
beauty of life when they live in a diverse society.
Heterogeneity is often viewed as something that needs
to be transformed into homogeneity. This view fails to
understand the fundamental character and need of human
beings: diversity and liberty. No two people,
regardless their backgrounds, have exactly the same
character. Even if two people have the same DNA
structure, through cloning for example, they will
still have different character since they will have
different perception about life. This is a fundamental
reality of life.
In
the same spirit, no one is willing to be a slave who
does not have liberty. This is another fundamental
reality of life that every one should know. Therefore,
when someone imposes his rules on another person,
essentially the first person is trying to take away
two of the most fundamental realities from the latter:
Liberty and diversity.
We,
of course, are living in a real world where no one
will ever be able to please everybody. However, rules
and boundaries are something that people can make in
order to promote liberty and enhance peace among
people from all backgrounds.
No
rule that destroys liberty and diversity can be called
as noble rule. When it destroys liberty and diversity,
it essentially annihilates humanity, and when it
annihilates humanity, it only brings misery and
suffering. No prosperity in such circumstances exists
at all.
The
future of Indonesia will be completely determined by
how its people view diversity and liberty as two
fundamental realities that need to be maintained
and enhanced. Any intention and movement that tend to
destroy the two realities will result in a chaos and
misery, not only to the ones who are out of the
boundaries, but also to the whole people. The energy
required to make a universal rule to promote liberty
and unity in diversity is less compared to the energy
we will spend on imposing a specific rule for all.
It's up to us, which way that we want to develop.
We
can select our clothes for not to suffer from bad
weather, but we cannot select our neighbors without
bringing suffering to all.
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The Prospect
is published by The Indonesian Institute. Our messages are
study, democracy and unity.
