Multicultural Movements In Indonesia: A New Youth Initiative For Social Transformation

The massive process of reislamization of society that started to develop after the time of ‘Reformasi’ in 1998 has brought many social changes in everyday practice of social life in Indonesia. Today, Indonesia has to face almost everyday the problems related with the disruption of harmony of living-together. Besides religious-fundamentalism and terrorism, the intolerance among religious groups, violence against minorities and the demise of cultural diversity respect value have become a serious problem in society. Concerned with that situation, many young people in Yogyakarta in Central Java have built movements for bringing back social tolerance in Indonesian public sphere. As counter-actions and counter-discourses, the movement has successfully gained the public support and built larger networks in local and national levels. The movements also have become the source of ideas and inspiration for wider discourses on diversity in a global multicultural world. Of course, there are challenges that they have to deal with in order to achieve the social transformation.