AYU UTAMI: The Spirit of Indonesia – Rasa, Reason, Religion
Channel: Doku Lab
Date: 2015-09-04

2nd keynote lecture of 8th EuroSEAS Conference, 12 August 2015, Vienna  – by Ayu Utami.

(Please find the 1st keynote lecture by Benedict Anderson here: https://youtu.be/OWrueuva84o)

"History has shown that for centuries people of the now Indonesia’s archipelago lived in harmony despite their heterogeneity. An “ethic of harmony” has been described by many scholars. Temples and old scripts prove syncretism between Hinduism, Buddhism and other beliefs. Their classical literatures and traditional daily live show a somehow contradicting mixture of monotheism and local spirituality. The Republik Indonesia’s state foundation and emblem confirm its spirit of unity in diversity.

However, after the Reformasi we have seen an increasing trend of religious intolerance and violence in the name of God, parallel with global terrorism. The ethic of harmony is being contested by the modernist need for clarity, and ancient syncretism is being challenged by “modern dogmas”. Religion is no longer a traditional phenomena. The dogmatic strain of it survives very well in the digital era.

In my opinion, Indonesia can no longer keep its harmony through syncretism and the ethic of harmony. Modern education have taught Indonesia’s new generation to demand “a sense of clarity”. Both old mechanism could not satisfy it due to their inherent lack of logical consistency. On the other hand, unfortunately, this desire for clarity can be fulfilled in a superficial level by dogmas and short texts of the now prevailing social and mass media.

Indonesia still has spiritual assets to resist dogmatic views. It has proved a relatively smooth transition to democracy, especially if compared to the Arab Spring. The danger keeps lurking. As the ancient ethic of harmony is failing, the future resistance against dogmatism is not secularism per se, but critical thinking that opens itself to the yet unknown. I’d like to call it “critical spirituality”. I will narrate my opinion using also ghost stories, myths, personal history, language cases and social or mass media content."

(Universität Wien / University of Vienna, 12 August 2015, 9:30 am)

FULL SPEECH TEXT (PDF): http://goo.gl/Pplgdm

Ayu Utami's homepage: http://www.ayuutami.info

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European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS):
http://www.euroseas.org

EuroSEAS Conference 2015: http://www.univie.ac.at/euroseas2015

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