<https://www.quora.com/profile/Ben-Haryo> Ben Haryo <https://www.quora.com/profile/Ben-Haryo> · Updated Tue <https://www.quora.com/Politically-speaking-are-Balinese-Chinese-Indonesians-Bataks-and-Papuans-liberals-while-Acehnese-Minangkabau-and-Sundanese-are-conservatives/answer/Ben-Haryo> knows Dutch Politically speaking, are Balinese, Chinese-Indonesians, Bataks, and Papuans liberals, while Acehnese, Minangkabau, and Sundanese are conservatives? <https://www.quora.com/Politically-speaking-are-Balinese-Chinese-Indonesians-Bataks-and-Papuans-liberals-while-Acehnese-Minangkabau-and-Sundanese-are-conservatives>
We can’t generalize Indonesian people like such, because they are not a monolith, even people from the same tribe/ethnic group mostly have different political opinions among themselves. Here’s an example. Ridwan Kamil is a very popular Sundanese governor, but he is known as one of the foremost defenders of Indonesian pluralism. Conversely, Felix Siauw, a famous Chinese-Indonesian preacher, is known for conservatism, and even his support for “Islamic State”. Liu Sungkharisma, one of the pioneer of Chinese-Indonesian political party after the fall of Suharto, is one of the strongest supporters of conservatism. Therefore, we cannot generalize the political inclination of ethnic groups in Indonesia. The only tendency we could deduct is through the last election (2019), on which the largest Islamist conservatist political party, the PKS, only won 8% of the votes, therefore we could suspect that most Indonesians does not support conservatism. And why is that? This is because we also cannot generalize Indonesian Muslims. Again, they are not a monolith, we cannot assume just because Muslims are a majority in Indonesia, then the whole country will tolerate conservatism. The fact remain that many of the popular non-Muslim liberal politicians has very strong backing from Muslims as well. I’d like to show you one picture to conclude my point: This picture above is from a Chinese New Year celebration of an elderly Chinese-Indonesian lady happily celebrating the New Year with her relatives, some of which are Muslims. THIS is the true picture of the grassroots Indonesia at present. Please, have a look at my recent article as well, which discusses this matter a bit deeper: Ben Haryo's answer to What do Chinese Indonesians think about Islam, especially in Indonesia? Do they know the differences between Islam and Muslim? <https://www.quora.com/What-do-Chinese-Indonesians-think-about-Islam-especially-in-Indonesia-Do-they-know-the-differences-between-Islam-and-Muslim/answer/Ben-Haryo>
