Today I woke up at 6am, dragged myself out of bed, and stared out the window into the dark. I hate waking up before the sun rises. It's unnatural and depressing. Then I took a cold shower, got dressed, put on my jilbab, and drove to work for my 7:30am class.
I hate 7:30am. Actually, I hate any time before 9am. Man I miss college. If it weren't for the fact that my 7:30am class is with my advanced English 11th grade students, I would be really really mean. Fortunately, they're a good class. They are intelligent, thoughtful, interested in the world, and fun to talk to. I always enjoy teaching them and challenging them both in the English language and in their ideas. Today for my lesson, I told them that the Indonesian government has decided to give one of it's uninhabited islands to the UN for the creation of a new, international country with a population consisting of people from every country in the world. Then they broke up into groups and had to design their country. I gave them a series of topics to discuss, including things like political system, type of economy, official language, official religion, censorship, marriage laws, and industry. Everyone in the class agreed that democracy was the only option for a system of government with their reasoning being that every person has the right to participate in government.
I was surprised by many of their answers. Only one group said that there would be no official religion. The others mimicked Indonesian laws and said that there would be four official religions - Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I reminded them that this is an international country and there would be people from Israel, for example, living there, and I asked if Judaism would be recognized. After a few minutes of discussion, they decided (begrudgingly) that Jewish people would be allowed to live in this country but only for a limited time and without the right to practice their religion. When I asked why, they couldn't answer. Not even in Indonesian. All they could say was that because it's not one of their chosen official religions.
When I got to the censorship question, I gave a little speech. Indonesia has a censorship board that monitors all forms of media and removes anything deemed immoral. This includes something as minor as pecks on the cheeks between a husband and wife in a movie on TV all the way to cutting out sex, violence, or drug use in movies in the theater (this policy is not consistently enforced, however). It is with this in mind that I gave my speech. I told them that there is a debate about censorship. Some people think it violates a person's right to make decisions for herself or himself or that it takes away freedom of expression for artists. Other people argue that it is a dangerous governmental practice because if it's not controlled, it can eventually erode the people's freedoms in regard to government. Still other people think that maintaining a certain moral fiber throughout a society with censorship is the responsibility of the government because the people cannot be trusted to make good decisions. I told them that they should decide which argument they agree with and make their censorship laws accordingly. Every single group agreed that morality is more important than freedom of choice or expression and that the government has a responsibility to enforce morality. They also decided that all forms of media - newspapers, books, movies, TV, magazines, internet - would be censored for kissing (PITY!), sex, drugs, violence, and other immoral acts. I asked them if a movie was portraying drugs in a negative light and showing the harm they do to people (Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting came to mind), would those still be allowed. They said no, absolutely no depictions of anything.
Finally we got to the issue of marriage laws. I told them they had to decide if there would be restrictions on who could be married in regard to religion, race, etc. The only restriction they chose was for religion (this also mimics Indonesian laws). Their argument was that in Islam, it is forbidden to marry a person who does not share the same religion. I asked them if these laws apply in religions other than Islam, but they ignored me. They continued to say, "A Muslim must marry a Muslim." It was like a broken record. So I asked the group that had chosen to abstain from an official religion if it was fair for them to impose a religious law in a country with no official religion. Again, the broken record.
The class's response to these questions really surprised me. I wasn't expecting them to be rebellious, American-style teenagers. They are very pious Muslims in a VERY strictly religious Muslim school. But I was still surprised. Since I have been teaching here, we've talked about a lot of things. Corruption, education, religious conflict, political freedom (and lack thereof), and religiously-based self-segregation are all topics of interest for these students. They often speak critically of these issues and offer up thoughtful, insightful solutions. Disagreements and debates between the students are not uncommon. In fact, their comments and suggestions seem more intelligent and realistic than some of the things their teachers say. Based on these past conversations, I was expecting at least some sort consideration of what is different. I continued to remind them that it was an international country in the hopes that they would talk about what it means for all sorts of people to come together and what kinds of problems might ensue from imposing rules that can exclude or alienate a great deal of people. Instead, they sounded like a propaganda piece for the current government.
I don't write this to try to make Islam look bad or further enforce the stereotype that Muslims are trying to take over the world. On the contrary. If you went into a Christian school here, you'd probably here similar answers in favor of Christianity (that's just a guess, though. I don't know any Christians here). What saddens me is that my students, who are full of questions and criticisms and ideas and confusion, are not taught or encouraged to think critically. On more than one occasion, they have been silenced by teachers for speaking to me about religious conflict or tension (Apparently it doesn't exist here *cough cough*). I don't know if they are silenced because they aren't supposed to talk about it at all or because the teachers want me to think everything is ok (like I don't read the news and experience life here). I often get the sense that I am lied to about many things regarding Indonesian government or culture, which is one of the reasons I don't feel like I can get a grasp on this place. But what kills me is that this country, like every other country in the world, is riddled with problems. Serious problems that need to be fixed in order for this country to become more developed. But how can they? How can they work to create effective and lasting solutions if they aren't taught to consider what is beyond their own world? It breaks my heart.
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