Leading to resurrection?

Photos by Chizuyo Inoue rscj Campaigning for the incumbent party, whose color is red. People are paid to wear colors and drive around.

This year Indonesia is coloured with the Elections. The people are busy trying to find and choose the right kind of persons to lead their government. Elections of 2004, the first stage of which are on April 5, are different from previous ones. Earlier only three parties contended. The last Election had 48! The people had no right to vote directly for their President and Vice President; the People’s Consultative Assembly chose. This year for the first time, the people rejoice at being able to choose directly the candidates for the House of Representatives, Regional Representative Councils, Provincial Legislatures, Regency/ Municipal Legislatures, President and Vice President.

Since campaigning officially began two weeks ago, Indonesian roads have a festive look, festooned with colourful banners not of three parties but of 24! Crowds of people parade through streets shouting slogans. Everyday two parties may campaign. One can see the confusion, the added traffic jam on Jakarta roads. Our friends, the “motorcycle taxi” drivers, are not sure who they will vote for but what they are sure of is that they will get at least 24 T shirts to add to their wardrobe! (Each party distributes T Shirts, money and food to the people who are part of the campaign.)

Media coverage about the elections is educative and the church in Indonesia too has taken its responsibility to educate the people to choose the right kind of government. Two of us attended a church-sponsored workshop on the election. Historically, the young, especially students, have played an important role and been a powerful force of change in the nation. The University of Indonesia has a programme everyday about the Elections. Atma Jaya Catholic University, where we work, conducted research, focusing on Students’ Attitudes and Aspirations for the Elections. 1,399 students from 9 universities responded. Among other things, the results showed:

1. 80% of the students feel responsible to exercise their vote.
2. 15% refuse to vote or will cast blank ballots because they are not sure if their vote will bring real change.
3. 5% have not given a thought to the Elections.

Each party has to have a quota of women candidates. The research showed how students view the importance of women in the parties

1. 43% do not consider this important.
2. 33% have not thought about it at all.
3. 24% have taken this into consideration.

This research, an eye opener, confirms for Atma Jaya and all of us the need for an education that truly transforms and particularly for women’s value to society.

Parties promise to have peace, to reduce prices of food and travel. Advertisements on television also threaten the ‘losses’ that people will face if the party is not in power! Everything ‘good’ is promised: good medical care, good food, good education and the list goes on and on. It seems the worst crooks have the best ads!

But in spite of all this, the hope in the eyes of the people we meet everyday speaks louder than all the slogans and promises. To contemplate this ‘excitement’ in Lent is not a struggle for us because we see in the faces and hearts of the people pain, suffering, deception and life goes on each day in the longing to find peace and meaning in the midst of conflict and separation. I saw this peace one morning on my way back from mass. School children of about 6 or 7 years of age gathered in an open van and were imitating their elders. They were shouting slogans but there was a difference! Each held a different flag so all the parties were represented. Their gesture expressed the longing of oneness in each of our hearts.

From separation to Oneness is precisely the joy of Easter that children and simple people give us everyday. They teach us that the gifts of God: perfect safety, perfect peace, perfect happiness and perfect love are already within us, within our own hearts and minds. They tell us through their lives and their response to situations such as these that the fear, insecurity and pain inherent in (power struggles, separate interests, competition, and injustice give way to a joyful awareness that all creation shares as one in love that knows no condition or limit.

Love is within us; peace is within us, and we can choose at any time to return. The power of our return lies within us, within our choice, and not in anything in or of the world. No wonder the first gift Jesus gave His disciples after His resurrection was His gift of Peace, Peace that the world cannot give. We share this with you from Indonesia and encourage you to turn to the stately calm within where in holy stillness dwells the living God you never left and Who never left you!

Gerardette Philips rscj