From Personal Concern to Interfaith Collaboration: The Story of Raka Wisnu and Tunas Harmoni Mataram
I Gusti Raka Bagus Wisnu Raditya, warmly known as Raka, is a young Hindu man who grew up in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara. Besides being an active Law student, he is a member of the Mataram Hindu Youth Association (Perhimpunan Pemuda Hindu Mataram).
As the coordinator of the organization division, he plays a crucial role in designing strategies to reach and develop the capacity of Hindu youth in NTB. This is where his story begins when Raka and his colleagues embraced young Hindu men and women to hold various cultural activities and collaborate with youth from different religious backgrounds.
As a young person eager for experience, Raka was always enthusiastic about channeling his initiatives into collaborative religious activities. He once held a campaign to plant 1,000 trees in Lombok alongside young people from Muhammadiyah and Hindu Dharma groups.
He is also active in environmental conservation efforts, such as greening houses of worship, cleaning beaches, and cleaning temples in the West Lombok area with other Hindu communities.
However, despite his contributions to the environment, deep down, he hadn't truly felt a profound care for environmental issues. For him, the small habits always promoted by environmental activists, such as using a tumbler or personal cutlery, were impractical. This was because when he bought food outside, the packaging was already designed to make things easier for the consumer.
Nevertheless, his concern began to emerge when he saw trash scattered in his surroundings. His high curiosity led him to the question, "Where does this trash go?" which often popped into his mind.
This unease seemed to find direction when the Hindu Youth Association appointed Raka as the Mataram City representative for the Capacity Building: Religious and Interfaith Engagement to Manage Environmental Risks event in Bandung. This training, organized by PeaceGen, was a collaborative effort to realize a sustainable environment that runs parallel with tolerant interreligious relations.
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There was a sense of confusion in Raka's mind when the event just started. He wondered if the activity would focus on religion or the environment. However, after attending until the last session, he realized that religion and the environment are always related in everything. Furthermore, after sharing stories with friends from different faiths and regions, his perspective broadened regarding how other religions view the environment.
"It turns out that every religion has teachings about protecting the environment. In my religion, Hinduism, there are already teachings about caring for the environment, but I just realized that Islam, Christianity, and other religions also have the same principles."
Raka recognized that every region has its own challenges in addressing environmental issues, including those faced by his own community. Problems began to surface when looking at the condition of the beach often used for scattering cremation ashes. This beach, located near a place of worship, lacks mangrove trees as a natural buffer, raising concerns about abrasion.
After participating in this Capacity Building, Raka returned to Mataram bringing a more concrete, newfound awareness. The most tangible and visible change was when he started implementing small changes by carrying a tumbler and personal cutlery. He even suggested using refillable water gallons at his association's secretariat. Not only that, he also started inviting his friends to be more conscious and concerned about waste management.
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As a follow-up, Raka and his friends conducted the Tunas Harmoni local training. As a result, they decided to pay a courtesy visit to the Mataram City Environmental Agency (DLH) regarding the Final Disposal Site (TPA) that is no longer functional. This is because all waste must now be sent to the Kebon Kongok TPA in West Lombok, which is also full. Raka and Tunas Harmoni Mataram have high hopes of advocating that finding new TPA land is not the ultimate solution. The trash problem cannot simply be solved there.
Raka realizes that change must start from within. Not only that, practical action is needed, which he will personally guide as a follow-up to the environmental campaign. Moving forward, Raka wants to further strengthen interfaith collaboration to address environmental issues together, starting from small community scopes up to aiming for larger policy changes.
