Sincerity needed for true repentance<\/p>\n
By Mochtar Buchori<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"What do you think of Amien Rais' call to the
\nnation that we repent?\" a journalist asked me over the phone
\nreferring to the chairman of Muhammadiyah which has 28 million
\nmembers.<\/p>\n
\"It is a good idea. It is excellent,\" I answered.<\/p>\n
\"But do you think it will be effective?\"<\/p>\n
I was lost. I simply could not grasp what he actually wanted
\nto ask me. I did not have any inkling of how he perceives the act
\nof appealing or beseeching, and how he judges its impact to be
\neither effective or ineffective.<\/p>\n
What does he expect from a national campaign of imploring the
\npublic to repent? So, I asked him, \"What do you mean?\"<\/p>\n
\"I mean will a national campaign to repent result in us not
\nmaking all the stupid mistakes we have made this far? Can such a
\ncampaign turn us into a more responsible and decent nation?\"<\/p>\n
This guy is really naive, I said to myself. How shall I
\nexplain to him that a national campaign for repentance is not
\nmeant to clean the nation of all the dirt it has heaped upon
\nitself? How shall I explain to him that there is no such thing as
\ninstant transformation when it comes to national predilections of
\ngood and bad behavior?<\/p>\n
\"The purpose of a national campaign to repent is not to clean
\nus instantly of our sins,\" I said. \"It is aimed at reminding us
\nthat we have made mistakes in the past, which not all of us are
\nwilling to acknowledge. There are some mistakes that some of us
\nmade out of ignorance. But there are also mistakes that we made
\nknowingly and willingly, but which we somehow tried to justify or
\ndefend.<\/p>\n
\"But no matter how hard we try to justify our mistakes,
\nmorally speaking mistakes remain mistakes. Now that we are
\novercome by so many mishaps, many among the public look upon
\nthese misfortunes as divine punishment for all the transgressions
\nthat we made in the past.<\/p>\n
\"If we show our remorse and regret now, and promise that we
\nwill improve ourselves morally, hopefully God will forgive us,
\nand all these unfortunate accidents will stop plaguing us.<\/p>\n
\"This is the purpose of a national campaign for repentance.
\nWhether we will become more responsible or not as a nation
\ndepends upon what we do after we repent.<\/p>\n
\"Repentance is just an action of the moment, but one that we
\nmust do with all the sincerity we can marshal. Only an act of
\nrepentance prompted by deep-felt regret about past mistakes will
\ngenerate further actions heading towards self-improvement.<\/p>\n
\"Repentance is an act of double promise, that is a promise not
\nto repeat past mistakes, and a promise to improve oneself. This
\nis why sincerity is so important in any act of repentance.\"<\/p>\n
I stopped for a moment, giving the guy at the other end time
\nto digest all the things I had said. I was aware that I could
\nhave sounded like I was preaching to him, and that he could
\nresent me for that. I hate to be preached to myself, especially
\nby someone I don't know personally. But what I heard from the
\nother end was a polite and meek, \"Yes, Sir!.\"<\/p>\n
This gave me courage to continue my rhetoric. I said that
\nthere is no guarantee that every one of us will join this
\ncampaign for national repentance. I am sure there are persons
\namong us who do not feel any guilt even though they were involved
\nin some of the national scandals that have brought our nation
\ninto its present miserable conditions.<\/p>\n
This kind of people will not genuinely participate in any
\nnational campaign for repentance. They may outwardly join the
\nmovement, but in their hearts they may say to themselves, \"You
\nare all fools. This country is full of fools. And they think they
\nare holy.\" These people will get away unscathed. This happened in
\nthe past, and it will happen again in the future.<\/p>\n
This fact notwithstanding, though, we should not feel
\ndiscouraged. We must persist in our efforts to strive for a clean
\nsociety. I think there are still enough people in this country
\nwho are willing to do anything within their reach to bring about
\na more decent and orderly society.<\/p>\n
There are many among us who, naive or not, genuinely feel that
\na national campaign for repentance could be the beginning of a
\nnational movement to reject any scheme that harms our society.<\/p>\n
There are still enough people who believe that such movement
\ncould lead us further toward a more active campaign, that is a
\ncampaign to support schemes aimed at cleaning up the existing
\nmess. If this happens, we will be at the threshold of a clean
\nsociety that has the effective capacity to generate a clean and
\ntrustworthy government.<\/p>\n
The voice at the other end asked, \"But aren't we in the midst
\nof a national campaign to fight corruption and collusion now?
\nFrom time to time, don't we hear people in the government say
\nthat the fight against corruption will never succeed without the
\nsupport of the people?\"<\/p>\n
\"That is just the problem! Just because there are those in the
\nupper echelons of the hierarchy who repeatedly condemn
\ncorruption and collusion, it does not mean that the nation has
\nbeen effectively persuaded to reject these two evils.<\/p>\n
\"Not everyone has the moral capacity to make the public
\nrepent. Only those perceived by society as having never been
\ncompromised in their moral conduct have the moral power to move
\npublic conscience. Those perceived by the public as stigmatized
\nby corruption and collusion will not receive any attention from
\nthe public, no matter how frequently they condemn these two
\nsocial ills.\"<\/p>\n
In conclusion, I reminded him that we should recognize the
\ndifference between those who genuinely repent and amend their
\nconduct, and the munafiqun who, according to Abdulah Yusuf Ali,
\nare \"the deep-dyed hypocrites, who when found out make excuses
\nbecause otherwise they will suffer ignominy; they are
\nunregenerate and obstinate, and there is no hope for them,\" (Note
\nNo. 1354 for Verse 106, Surah Al Tawbah).<\/p>\n
The writer is an observer of social and political affairs.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sincerity-needed-for-true-repentance-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }