Youth told to avoid fanaticism, promote pluralism<\/p>\n
Slamet Susanto and A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post,
\nYogyakarta\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Yogyakarta-based presidential candidate Governor Sri Sultan
\nHamengkubuwono X called on youths on Tuesday to avoid myopic
\nnationalism and promote pluralism instead.<\/p>\n
The governor, who is also the Sultan of Yogyakarta, said
\nyouths should not be trapped in a narrow religious outlook, nor
\ntribal or political sectarianism.<\/p>\n
\"So far, we have considered others of a different 'color' are
\nnot part of us as a nation,\" he said at a ceremony in Yogyakarta
\ncommemorating Youth Pledge Day.<\/p>\n
He said people's differences in religion, ethnicity and
\npolitical affiliation should be seen as social capital, and that
\nthe spirit of the second Youth Congress in 1928, in which youths
\nof varying backgrounds came together as a single community,
\nshould be kept alive.<\/p>\n
In the 1928 congress held in Jakarta, the youths pledged that
\nthey belonged to one undivided nation, one motherland and one
\ncommon language.<\/p>\n
Separately, Vice President Hamzah echoed Hamengkubuwono,
\ncalling on the youths of Indonesia to be independent and be
\npioneers of the reform era, as were the youths in 1928.<\/p>\n
Hamzah also chairs the United Development Party (PPP), which,
\nalong with the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and certain elements in
\nthe bureaucracy, is continuing moves to try and impose the
\nIslamic sharia law on the country.<\/p>\n
The commemoration of Youth Pledge Day at the Vice Presidential
\nPalace was also attended by Minister of National Education Malik
\nFadjar, State Minister of Research and Technology M. Hatta
\nRadjasa, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and House of
\nRepresentatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.<\/p>\n
While state officials commemorated the day with formal events,
\nstudents marked the day by staging rallies across the country.<\/p>\n
Dozens of youths in Yogyakarta condemned the neo-liberalism,
\nneo-imperialism and hedonism that have undermined the spirit of
\nyouths today.<\/p>\n
Following the fall of Soeharto and his New Order regime in
\n1998, those problems that had been swept under the carpet by his
\nautocratic rule resurged and erupted as sectarian conflicts in
\nmany parts of the country.<\/p>\n
Since then, violent and bloody ethnic conflicts have broken
\nout in Kalimantan, religious conflicts in Maluku and Poso,
\nCentral Sulawesi, and a separatist conflict in Aceh.<\/p>\n
Noted sociologists called on the government and the people on
\nMonday to address these problems in order to keep the nation from
\ndisintegrating.<\/p>",
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