Religious intellectual groups urged to pool their resources<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is urging religion-based
\nintellectual organizations, whose existence has been criticized
\nas fostering sectarian politics in Indonesia, to pool their
\nresources to help with national development.<\/p>\n
President Soeharto met with leaders of five religion-based
\norganizations at his residence on Saturday. He appealed to them
\nto work together at improving the quality of human resources,
\nwhich is seen as a key to success in development.<\/p>\n
The president fell short of appealing to the organizations to
\nmerge into one group as some politicians and government leaders
\nhave suggested.<\/p>\n
The five groups represented were ICMI (Moslems), ISKI (Roman
\nCatholics), PIKI (Protestants), FCHI (Hindus). Buddhists were
\nrepresented by members of the Buddhist Council who took the
\nopportunity to announce the formation of their own intellectual
\norganization, to be called KCBI, today.<\/p>\n
ICMI's chairman B.J. Habibie, who is also the state minister
\nof research and technology, led the group.<\/p>\n
\"Human resources development should be coordinated in order to
\nturn people into potentials in the fields of research and
\ntechnology which will benefit all of the people in a shortest
\ntime possible,\" Habibie quoted the President as saying.<\/p>\n
Habibie said the five organizations could work closely without
\nmerging into a single organization. \"I think the cooperation
\nbetween the five will be more effective in an informal way.\"<\/p>\n
Responding to Soeharto's appeal, the five organizations plan
\nto jointly organize a seminar on human resources development,
\nHabibie said. The seminar is scheduled for Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.<\/p>\n
PIKI chairman Pieter P. Sumbung said the cooperation was not a
\nresponse to criticism that the groups were fostering sectarian
\npolitics.<\/p>\n
The allegation, aimed chiefly at ICMI because of its
\nincreasing influence and reach, has been widely denied.<\/p>\n
\"The idea of cooperating comes from the president himself,
\nfrom a statement he made when he opened the PIKI congress last
\nDecember,\" Sumbung said.<\/p>\n
He added that since then PIKI and ICMI took the initiative to
\njointly organize the seminar on human resources development.<\/p>\n
Others taking part in the meeting on Saturday were ISKI
\nchairman Joko Waluyo, FCHI chairman Putu Setia and Siti Hartati
\nMurdaya, a candidate to head the KCBI.<\/p>\n
All the representatives during the meeting with President
\nSoeharto pledged their commitment to promote the unity of the
\nnation, and the cooperation between the five organizations was a
\nreflection of this commitment. (05)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/religious-intellectual-groups-urged-to-pool-their-resources-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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