Avoid being compartmentalization, church suggest
JAKARTA (JP): To push for true reform in the country, Indonesians must no longer let themselves be "compartmentalized" by any narrow-minded group's interests, the state's engineering, violence or despotism, the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) said.
"We must dare to speak out our true conscience with clear minds, to defend the truth and justice," the conference stated in a pastoral message signed Saturday by KWI Chairman Mgr. Josef Suwatan and Secretary-General Mgr. J. Hadiwikarta.
The statement, issued to coincide with the country's 53rd independence day anniversary, called on people to gracefully "forgive and pardon" should they face disputes with one another.
"In our togetherness as a nation, let us build a true brotherhood of man by accepting and respecting one another as God's fellow creatures," KWI said.
The statement contained the Indonesian Catholic Church's moral stance on reform and people's sovereignty, on freedom to assemble, on the aspirations of people in remote regions, and on what it describes as victims of state engineering and terror.
On reforms and people's sovereignty, it said: "Total and fundamental reform basically means moral calls for the sovereignty to be returned to the people."
Over the past three decades, the people's sovereignty had been stripped by the overcentralization of power to the state, it said.
KWI said the state administration's system over the last decades, which had been "corrupt, collusive and nepotistic" had led to the centralization of power.
"Too strong a centralization produced a regime which could arrange and engineer everything for its own purposes, families, relatives and close friends," it said.
Under such a regime, human rights and human dignity, the values of justice and honesty and truth, were denied. Therefore, the House of Representatives which it subsequently produced was unable to reflect and channel the people's aspirations.
"Doesn't this mean that people are still colonialized and have not yet enjoyed their real independence?" the KWI conference asked.
To prevent the specter of the old repressive regime from coming back, the conference urged the present government to ensure that the upcoming general election would be "free and confidential, without intimidation, and be honest and fair".
"In a modern democracy, the people's sovereignty is exercised by people's representatives," it said.
On the freedom to assemble, as had been displayed over the past three months in the growing number of political parties, the conference reminded the nation of the danger of "sectarianism or narrow fundamentalism".
"We support a close cooperation among our congregation and members of other religions, regardless of their ethnicities, in their participation in politics and other fields," it said.
On the aspirations of people in regions outside Java, KWI said: "It's just appropriate that we listen to the aspiration for later deliberation, instead of responding to it with suspicion and violence."
It also blasted the May riots as acts of state engineering and terrorism, which had been done "with the interest to preserve an absolute power". (aan)