Avoid being compartmentalization, church suggest
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)