Catholic adherents establish solidarity forum
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Catholic society declared on Saturday the establishment of the Democratic Solidarity of Indonesian Catholics, a social organization which will serve as an alternative medium to channel people's concerns on current social and political issues.
Although the solidarity forum is not set to be a political party, the organization is determined to take an active role in nurturing the nation's morality and political culture which, according to the forum founders, have been deteriorating.
"The birth of the solidarity forum is based on the premise that the existing channels for people's aspiration are still part of the authoritarian old regime," co-founder Chris Siner Key Timu told reporters after the launching of the solidarity forum at the Volley Ball Hall of the Bung Karno Sports Stadium in Central Jakarta on Saturday.
"By cooperating with other social organizations and holding dialogs with the existing political parties, the solidarity forum will become a driving force for the people's struggle and involvement in social and political affairs."
Chris, who is also a member of Petisi 50, a group of government critics active in the past regime, underlined that the solidarity forum was a nonexclusive organization where people from other religions and members of organizations or political parties were allowed to join.
"The word Catholic itself means universal. The Catholic label in the name is only to show that the organization has been initiated by the Catholic community. But the work is based on solidarity principles," he said.
The declaration ceremony was attended by hundreds of Catholic society members from Greater Jakarta; West Java's Cibinong, Karawang and Bandung; and representatives from North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua provinces.
Mohamad Sanusi, Chris' colleague at Petisi 50 and former executive at the country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, was also in attendance as well as other non- Catholic figures.
The public figures who signed the declaration included senior economist and former Bank Indonesia governor Frans Seda, former minister for public housing Cosmas Batubara, senior Catholic figure Petrus Canisius Harjasudirdja, and former House of Representatives (DPR) legislator of the Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction F.X. Ferry Tinggogoy.
The solidarity forum is the first Christian and Catholic social organization, which touches on social and political issues.