The Inter-Religious Working Network (Jakatarub), started with Gus Dur's initiative at the Al-Wasilah Islamic Boarding School in Garut in 1999, to spread the issue of diversity and tolerance. From the workshop at the Islamic boarding school, Jakatarub's journey continued to develop and continued at the Vipassana Graha Vihara in Lembang, where his official declaration was made. The Church of Santa Maria Immaculate in Buah Batu Bandung became the starting point for the formation of Jakatarub.
From 2000 to 2005, the Jakatarub movement was not very massive. It was only in 2005, with the participation of Wawan Gunawan, that the first Youth Interfaith Camp was held. However, after that, this community experienced a vacuum for several years due to a lack of regeneration, especially among young people.
“So in the past there weren't many young people in it, not like now. "Usually in the past people have graduated from college or are in their final semester, so regeneration is difficult," said Kaana Putra Mahatma, Jakatarub media division.
However, in 2010, Jakatarub became active again with various activities. From 2019 until now, the Jakatarub management is filled with young people, from administrators to members, with various gender and religious backgrounds.
Apart from having an acronym, the name Jakatarub itself is inspired by Sundanese culture, namely Jatarub, who steals an angel's shawl and peeks at an angel who is bathing. "So we peek at other people's diversity, we peek at other people's ways of worship," explained Kaana.
As a network, Jakatarub believes that the spirit of Jakatarub itself is to build cooperation and closeness with various religious leaders and other diverse communities. Jakatarub is not only exclusively for young people, but also opens dialogue with religious leaders and the government.
"For example, currently the Jakatarub secretariat is at the Pasundan Church office for free. "This cannot be achieved if there is no long and close emotional relationship between Jakatarub and religious leaders at the Pasundan Church," added Kaana.
Not only that, every year the Vipassana Graha Vihara is used as a room for deliberation or work meetings by Jakatarub for free too. They were even given a place to sleep and helped cook food during the event, said Kaana.
In its educational and advocacy performance, Jakatarub has several work programs covering various fields, such as Cafe Religion, Cafe Humanity, a monthly discussion called DuGem (Happy Discussion), Wi-Fi, and Ngaprak. Each program has its own characteristics and contributes to issues of peace, diversity and tolerance. "However, there is a temporary postponement of Dugem activities because now we are focusing on the Bandung Lautan Damai event," explained Ernita Kusuma, Jakatarub network division.
Jakatarub also collaborates with religious leaders and the government in its educational and advocacy work, such as collaborating with the National and Political Unity Agency (Kesbangpol) and the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag). So their activities are not only limited to webinars or FGDs, but also real actions that open networks in various places, including on the outskirts of Bandung.
The aim is to eradicate the negative stigma of differences and promote peace, diversity and tolerance. They not only spread these issues but also invited several other institutions to participate, such as the Bandung Legal Aid Institute (LBH), West Java Environmental Forum (Walhi), as well as other interfaith and peace communities, to speak from various perspectives.
"So in Jakatarub there is a big event held every year. There is Bandung Lautan Damai, Youth Interfaith Camp and work meetings. "So usually we celebrate big days such as International Day of Tolerance, 16 HAKTP and International Human Rights Day," added Kaana.
Jakatarub has also carried out Voice for Peace activities, where this activity trains journalists and media to write narratives about diversity without hostility. Content creators on social media are also trained to create content that is tolerant. As well as providing capacity development for the peace community so that it is not reactionary in seeing differences outside the mainstream.
"When we talk about it, everyone can tolerate tolerance, of course they want to, but if you look at the current conditions, it doesn't seem like that yet. For example, there is the case of the al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school, where people who consider religious rituals that are different from the mainstream are still considered heretical. "That is still our collective task," explained Sabahuddin, Jakatarub's advocacy division.
Sabahuddin saw that Greater Bandung was not truly tolerant. There are still many violations committed by the government. However, they still believe that there are still peace practices in Greater Bandung and this is not just the focus of Jakatarub.
"Maybe in the city of Bandung it is already quite massive, because like Jakatarub they gather in the city, but in the district areas it's still not there. "Well, that's why we finally made Bandung a sea of peace in the outskirts so that this issue would grow and become known to many people," explained Sabahuddin.
This is because Bandung district still rarely has spaces for meetings between faiths and religions. Even every district in Bandung has different issues. So Jakatarub must carry out mapping so that the education provided is in accordance with the needs of the people there.
"For example, in South Bandung, the issue is about the number of church closures, so the activities are created, namely inter-religious meeting spaces. "So there are various kinds of issues," added Sabahuddin.
"Perhaps we can see how Christians and Muslims can come together and accept each other, but what is difficult is that Muslims are faced with other Islamic sects and Christians are faced with other churches. "There is already a lot of dialogue between religions, but there is not a lot of dialogue between different faiths," added Kaana.
This sensitive issue also becomes the next challenge for Jakatarub. Plus, Jakatarub contains young people, so it is often underestimated by both society and the government. They are trying to change the mindset that still underestimates the voices of young people, because they believe that young people also have a valuable contribution in building peace and tolerance.
"Because Jakatarub is a representation of young people voicing diversity, even though many don't listen and give us space, there are still activities from the government that invite Jakatarub. This means they still want to listen to the voices of young people. "Like yesterday we had an activity with the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), and we gave a policy brief to FKUB," explained Kaana.
It doesn't stop there, Jakatarub also often receives warnings when conducting advocacy and dialogue spaces. Ernita told how when Jakatarub held a consolidation at the Pasundan Dayeuhkolot Christian Church. They received a warning not to carry out consolidation activities at that place.
"They are still present, but their presence actually brings the police and this is tantamount to intimidation and invites fear from the community. "In fact, we just want to straighten out why this church conflict really happened," explained Ernita.
Kaana added that the intimidation that Jakatarub often received was mostly experienced personally. For example, one of Jakatarub's friends who is currently studying adheres to beliefs outside of the six recognized religions. This has an impact on the grades for religious courses which do not appear on the university portal. Also one of Jakatarub's friends who is still in high school. He received insults because he had beliefs outside the mainstream.
"There were also Confucian friends who wanted to create an SKCK and were told to just choose Islam so that the administration would be easier. Also rules on forcing the wearing of the hijab in schools. "So from the scope of education and the government, we still don't have a perspective on human rights and the rights of belief and religion," explained Kaana.
This is one of the biggest challenges for Jakatarub itself, especially in case advocacy activities. Jakatarub, which is involved in non-litigation advocacy, not only accompanies victims, but also builds closeness with the government.
"For advocacy, the challenge is that the government is afraid of its mass organizations. "So one side of Jakatarub is assisting victims, one side of Jakatarub is building closeness from scratch with the government," explained Sabahuddin.
Laws that are still lame, especially in the Joint Regulations regarding Building Permits (IMB) for places of worship, are also one of them. Where it is written that the conditions for building a house of worship must have 90 signatures from congregations who want to build a house of worship. Then, 60 people from local residents, and that was very burdensome, said Sabhuddin.
“So there are many horizontal conflicts in society. "Moreover, Jakatarub does not want to be hostile to the community," he added.
With the many challenges faced, this does not reduce the enthusiasm to continue promoting peace in Bandung. Jakatarub will remain consistent in the tolerance movement, not only in the city but also in the suburbs. They also want to provide education and assistance to perpetrators, not only as a deterrent effect, but also to prevent it from continuing.
Jakatarub believes that small and consistent steps can bring positive change in building peace and tolerance in society.
“This peace is not a one, two or five year journey but a long journey. We want to have peace tomorrow and this is still difficult. Maybe the hope is that we won't continue to be enemies of the government and society. "Jakatarub doesn't want to go international, but Jakatarub wants to go to villages," hoped Kaana.
"Maybe not many people have accepted it, but we can start from a small scope first. Like a place to hang out with friends. "So if someone is different from us, it doesn't mean it's scary, but we are the same and equal," said Sabahuddin.
