Last modified: 2023-06-28
Abstract
Populism is an urgent problem in modern democratic contestation. Frederico Tarragoni, a French sociologist, says that populism is not only identitarian but also plebeian. For Tarragoni, an identitarian populism has nationalist and xenophobic tendencies, a society that feels its identity is clear and fears foreigners. Meanwhile, plebeian populism is a movement that forms people for a certain purpose through a project; for example, a group of people who gather because they are united by a group of anti-corruption social activists and then fight against oligarchic domination. Populism becomes an actual problem because (1) populism unites several political projects such as cities and villages, right and left camps; (2) populism can be said to be a project to fight for the people; (3) populism can be a weapon of political struggle and this can be utilized by the ruling class in a country.
Populism is also pervasive in the context of diversity in Indonesia. In Indonesia itself, populism mostly leads to identitarian populism, which if not careful will cause friction between groups of people. Identities that are only formed on one element (e.g. religion, ethnicity) often trigger conflicts between the majority and minority. From the majority's point of view, they create a crisis of convergence, a crisis that is deliberately created to divide society in order to fulfill the hidden goals of certain groups. In reality, identities are plural.
In this context, the Church is challenged to make contributions by opening up the narrowness of a singular identitarian populist perspective through a culture of encounter. As written in Fratelli Tutti "a culture of encounter means that we, as a society, should be more eager to meet others, to find common ground, to build bridges, to plan a project that involves everyone." (FT, 216). The culture of encounter should not remain as something abstract and needs to be realized in daily life. The culture of encounter is made concrete through interfaith dialogues and various programs such as live-ins or exposures at catholic schools so that everyone knows each other.