Suyatno Hadiatmojo

To combat and reduce a rapid rise in religious conflicts across Indonesia, Father Suyatno Hadiatmojo—a Catholic priest—is building an interfaith movement. Working toward common humanitarian, social, and cultural goals, people from various religious backgrounds are developing respect and understanding for each other.

Using social and environmental causes as well as local traditions to bring people together, Suyatno has started an interfaith movement among people of different religious backgrounds. Through the forum he co-founded, People of Faith Fellowship Forum (Forum Persaudaraan Umat Beragama—FPUB), Suyatno offers citizens opportunities to demonstrate their religious values through non-divisive channels, particularly by serving their surrounding communities. Examples of service include interfaith village discussions, senior citizen visits, village gatherings, and community projects. Suyatno’s efforts aim to bridge religious divides and reduce the conflict plaguing so many of Indonesia’s communities.

Suyatno’s movement is markedly different from past interfaith attempts, in that he has been careful not to market it as an effort to bridge religious divisions. Instead, FPUB organizes “social and cultural revitalization events.” FPUB has inspired similar programs across the world and has facilitated the formation of interfaith forums in several areas in Central Java, Yogyakarta, Palembang, Medan, Lampung, and Aceh. Religious followers, journalists, and prominent religious leaders from more than 30 countries across Asia, Europe, America, and Australia have visited FPUB.

Indonesia, which is home to six main religious faiths and a variety of other religious beliefs, is often beset by interfaith conflict. During the New Order era, the government used military repression to impose religious tolerance, which only resulted in a strict control over religious life. Despite the seemingly peaceful conditions, however, interfaith conflict remained latent.

Exacerbated by political interests and religious fanaticism, conflict soon erupted after the Reform era. In 2007, community groups experienced more than 32 religious clashes—many of which started from trivial disagreements among followers of different faiths, e.g. between Muslims and Christians in Ambon and Poso, located in Central Selawesi. In 2008, a freedom of religion demonstration in Monas, Jakarta experienced an attack, thus underscoring the gravity of the underlying conflicts.

While the government has attempted to formally initiate interfaith forums under the Department of Religion, unfortunately discourse only occurs among religious leaders, scholars, and citizen organizations (COs), rather than among ordinary citizens. Some religious fanatics even accuse people who try to broach interfaith discussions of being heretics. And, at the same time, religious institutions only make problems worse by fostering the cultivation of stereotypes and exclusivity.

Having personally witnessed the disconnect between the interfaith discussions occurring among religious leaders and the daily conversations between most citizens, Father Suyatno—a strategic and effective long-term organizer—began mobilizing representatives from Indonesia’s six major religious faiths to meet regularly. He convinced the representatives of the need to extend discourse to Indonesia’s citizens. Together, through FPUB, the group held discussions about humanitarian issues with community members from various villages.

Suyatno has strategically disguised the interfaith movement as a revitalization of cultural values. Furthermore, to obviate an endless discussion about religious beliefs, Suyatno distances the organization from religious goals, such as conversions or syncretism. Instead, he mobilizes members from various religious groups to collectivize and participate in social activities, such as dialogue, work, and celebration. Religious leaders and followers from all religious backgrounds participate together regularly in public events, thus providing powerful examples of interfaith practice for citizens.

Father Suyatno purposely emphasizes communal work, which has long been embedded in Indonesian culture, as a means of finding common ground among disparate groups of religious followers. Using social and environmental causes, he mobilizes and unites these various groups. The interfaith messages are delivered subtly and tactfully. When distributing relief aid and building clean water systems in the Turgo village, for example, Suyatno carefully tells members that “there’s no such thing as Catholic rice, or Islamic rice, or Hindu water.” As communal activities become more common and people begin working together to build religious facilities or even prepare festivities, interfaith collaboration begins to happen naturally. To further stress the importance of interfaith dialogue, FPUB focuses on sacred rituals such as village restoration projects, tree planting activities, and silent processions.

FPUB organizes regular Youth Camps to introduce the model to younger generations. As part of the Tsunami relief efforts, for instance, FPUB organized Life Skill Exchange sessions for Acehnese youth. Members attend various religious facilities to receive vocational training and to gain alternate perspectives about different faiths. By focusing on younger crowds, Suyatno hopes to foster the development of a generation of interfaith movement activists who can balance varying religious contexts around one unifying principle: The relationship to God and to each other.

FPUB organizes regular “peace campaigns” on national and religious grounds, which allows it to utilize traditional rituals as a means to promote understanding. For example, the ritual lampah ratri brings approximately 2,000 people together to march in silent procession, where they pray and reflect. Suyatno and his members also organize peace campaigns through other activities, such as flea markets, mobile medical services, savings groups, and reforestation programs.

FPUB has inspired the creation of hundreds of local interfaith forums, which were directly facilitated by staff members and even independently replicated in some cases. They effectively utilize the media to amplify their message and document lessons. Jogja, the City of Tolerance Book and film series, cites FPUB as the best practice available to maintain peace among cities that were once plagued by riots. Through FPUB, Suyatno envisions a brotherhood that will ultimately dissolve all borders and respect all religious beliefs.

Suyatno was born and raised in a poor family and had to pay his way through school by raising and selling chickens. He joined various student activities, including several sports and martial arts lessons. Suyatno’s mother solely supported his choice to enter seminary and when she passed away, he almost dropped out from school. However, the rector helped him get support from Sister Martinet with the Soegiopranoto Foundation. Through the foundation, Suyatno and two of his colleagues began working with a charity to help the homeless and needy.

Spending every holiday with the charity helped Suyatno develop a strong sense of service. After working with beggars for long periods of time, he wanted to experience being in their shoes. Suyatno therefore began a month-long journey from Mertoyudan seminary to Bali, walking and hitchhiking as a beggar, even sleeping on church porches.

With his colleagues, Suyatno started a number of initiatives, such as selling used papers and “stealing” seminary food wasted during a month of Christian fasting to be distributed to the poor. He was later introduced to interfaith issues and grassroots community work through his mentor Romo Mangun (Fr. Y.B. Mangunwijaya), known for his advocacy and relief work in Kedungombo, a village drowned for the development of big dams, i.e. a victim of the government’s development plan during the New Order era.