the church who were of Chinese ethnicity socialracial aspect. The Islamic hard liner militant group religious aspect threatened to attack
and burn the church violence. Subsequently, the city mayor political aspect, pressurized by economic interest and the religious radical group,
revoked the permit to use the church building religious aspect and urged them to move to another location. The church leader did not agree
and brought the case to court politicallegal aspect. After a lengthy and expensive economic aspect legal process, the case was finally brought
to the Supreme Court where GKI Yasmin won and was afforded the right to use the building. However, the Mayor of Bogor does not agree
and still, to this day, utilize the police political violence to close down the church building. This case shows how religion, economy, and
politics are mixed in the public sphere.
10.3.3 Public Spheres as Locations to Distribute Social Goods
According to Michael Walzer, the public sphere consists of many spaces Walzer, 1983. There isn’t just one sphere but many. Every
sphere is a location where social goods are distributed in accordance to differing rules. As an example, in the public sphere of university, the
social goods distributed include among other things: academic positions, registration of accepted students, academic titles and knowledge. These
proper social goods are distributed based on scientific proof and accountability in fulfilling academic obligations, such as: taking exams,
present in lectures, writing articlespapers, reading scientific papers, and so forth. In the academic “field” or “sphere”, the system is fair, as long
as the rules and academic procedures are followed. This doesn’t mean the academic “sphere” is entirely separate from economy, politics,
religion, et cetera, but these other fields are not allowed to control the field of education by neglecting academic values and regulations.
The same applies in the public sphere of market economy. The social goods distributed are services or products that can be purchased with
money. The economic sphere, for instance, is a store located in a mall
that has differing rules to traditional market. The prices in the store are fixed whereas the prices in traditional market are to be negotiated. In the
store, anyone willing to pay the price can take the goods. In a traditional market, if the seller and buyer didn’t feel mutually compatible, the
goods might not be sold to the buyer although shehe is willing to pay sufficiently. Nevertheless, be it traditional market or modern store, both
have rules in distributing goods or services based on monetary exchange or swap. Fairness in economy, including fairness in procedures not
violating the law or regulations in place and fairness in distribution, leads to beneficial results for all parties. Once Timor Leste seceded from
the Republic of Indonesia, it is said that many militia members who possessed Indonesian military weaponry entered West Timor. They
would often come into stores or shops, taking anything without paying. At the time, the political field controlled the economic one by not
honouring the values of the economic sphere. In the religious public sphere, there are also rules different to
economic regulations. If someone were to become a religious figure, shehe must follow the rules of religion. Possibly included in those rules
are having studied at a particular Islamic boarding school or seminary, and obedience to traditional Islamic religious educator kiayi or
professors. Meditating, studying, and praying. The system is fair if the social goods of religion, such as enlightenment, closeness to God,
respect from the society or position in religious institutions, are distributed in accordance to the values and regulations of the religion.
The same applies to the public sphere of art. If a person were to become a traditional puppeteer dalang in Java, shehe must speak
Javanese, learn the art of shadow puppetry from a prominent puppeteer, meditate, and follow a lengthy process before acquiring approval as a
puppeteer. If one were to be a star footballer, shehe must train extensively and gain extraordinary experiences sufficiently before
securing a position in a good football team. If one were to become a
fashion model, then shehe must be beautiful, has great skills, charismatic, sharp in choosing suitable attires, capable of putting on
cosmetics properly, and so forth. According to Michael Walzer, fairness is not alike in all public
spheres. Every sphere has its own rules and one isn’t allowed to dominate another. For example, in the economic field, fairness relates to
the distribution of money. Goods are sold with decent price and products bought are of quality in accordance to its price. However, in the field of
education, academic positions or a place in the university should not be acquirable by money. A person wanting to become a professor should
possess vast amount of knowledge, not money. In the field of sports, for example, a football star should be selected based on the capability of
scoring goals, not because hisher father is the Governor of East Java. In the field of religion, a person should not become a kiyai because she is
gorgeous like a movie star or rich, but because of her proper understanding and contemplation of religion.
Every field has valuable social goods which should be distributed in accordance to the rules of each field. No one field possesses the right to
dominate other fields. Certainly, the field of politics issue laws which regulate every field. Nevertheless, just and fair laws follow important
and differing values of the respective fields. The field of politics retains the right to use the police which use violence to uphold the law.
However, if a politician were to use the police to safeguard their own business interests or to kill a judge who could not be bribed, then this is
unfair because one field politics tries to dominate another field judicial through methods that are not suitable with the rules of each
field. The influence of Politics including violence, Economy including
money and Religion has been extremely powerful throughout the social life of Indonesian society. In my opinion, this is typical. Indonesia does
not need to imitate the West who is attempting to establish a secular
public sphere controlled by scientific rationality. Modern science, physics for example, is also one of the field in the public sphere that
should not be dominated by other fields. Religion should not dominate physics. As affirmed by Amin Abdullah, it is better to establish dialog
among different academic fields, including between religious knowledge and science, rather than one dominating over another. Physics should
not dominate religion as well. Experimentation and logics of physics could not prove that there is no God or that miracles are impossible. The
rules in the sphere of religion are different from the rules of physics experimentation.
The Indonesian public sphere will always be influenced by religion, politics, and economy. These three fields are intensely inseparable.
There will always be a process of mutual influence between one another. However, each field is not allowed to dominate another. In the end of
the New Order period, the family of President Soeharto dominated the field of Indonesian economy massively. As a result, the state became
bankrupt and the government overthrown. If Indonesia intends to overcome the many problems related to the poser of religion, politics,
and economy in the public sphere, then it must respect the values and rules which applies in the respective fields so that one field is not
intervened by other fields.
