Are We Genuinely Multicultural?

We may still remember how Jakarta governor election caught so many attention. In the last few months prior to the election and the roundoff, the city was exhausted by a few demonstrations attempting to attack one of the candidates, who happens to be Chinese Indonesian and Christian (a minority group in the world's most populous Muslim majority nation), Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. Mr. Basuki also had to face a criminal trial on a charge of blasphemy against Islam over his remark about a verse in the holy book. For many people, it was pretty obvious that the blasphemy case was orchestrated. The video of his full remark on the matter was intentionally cut and edited to make it sound as if he offended Islam. Perhaps it was known that issues on religion could be a powerful weapon to defeat Mr. Basuki despite his competencies, anti-corruption attitude and experience as an incumbent governor that made him an ideal candidate. And there you go: Mr. Basuki lost in the roundoff.