I was born in Medan, a city which is known as the “melting pot” where religions and cultures unite in diversity. Since I was a child, I used to play with children who had different religion and culture backgrounds. We were so close. We did not choose the children we wanted to play. However since we were in Junior High School, we were getting away. The differences seemed like a gap that made our relation getting worse. There is no lunar basket cake for me and there is no christmas gift too.
Finally I realized,our minds has been constructed in wrong way, it makes us prejudiced against others. Moreover the world which is getting individualistic forces us to choose friends based on the similar identity. Besides that, nowadays people prefer to help somebody who has a same background with them and ignore someone who has a different background with them. And if this continues, it will prolonge the conflict. This sad thing is not only happened in Medan, it is happened in the entire of Indonesia, ASEAN and even in the world.
Just because we have different beliefs and ideologys people can kill each other. For example, the internal conflict between religious believers as what happen in Myanmar it caused 180 people deaths and more than 110,000 displaced people (source : republika online), while interfaith conflict between Muslim and Christian in Ambon Indonesia caused 688 people were killed and 1,500 were missing (source : note Investigation Team Pos Care Justice Ummah). So what should we do?
Is it Inappropriate if we just keep silent and complain when we watch the television? That is the reason why I want to make a dialogue program for my community, I want to make a Community forum called “Forum Persaudaraan Masyarakat Deli”. In this forum, they will dialogue about how to face the interfaith problem and learn about new interfaith paradigm. I hope after doing those all of the generation after me should not suffer of following the rule which ban us to get along with people from different religions or cultures.
I hope “ One Family under God” will be happening in my community who lives in diversity, I believe that everybody in this world has one big dream and the big dream is live in harmony and “One family under God” is the key of the dream. Live for the greater good begins with yourself, your family, your community, your nations, and the world. I have started with myself, my family and will be starting in the community soon. If we are struggling together to make a greater good, I believe that ASEAN will be the role model that live in harmony is not a fantasy.
When ASEAN was born, there were many skeptics who would not believe that ASEAN could stand with the diversity among the ASEAN countries. Well, ASEAN proved all its critics wrong and it is now a vibrant reality. ASEAN is able to prove to the world that we still able to maintain peace and security among ASEAN member states. I imagine a peaceful world without conflict, where everybody is family. you and me as a brother and sister. There is no one who can separate us. I Imagine the world with no greed or hunger, Imagine all the people sharing love for others. And I hope ASEAN will be an initiator to make a better world.
