Churches admit mistakes over Soeharto
Churches admit mistakes over Soeharto
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian churches on Thursday admitted to
having played a part in maintaining Soeharto's oppressive New
Order regime and vowed never to repeat the same mistake.
Church leaders also pledged to become more actively involved
in the build up to the June 7 general election.
In a statement issued at the end of a three-day seminar on the
church's role in educating voters, delegates from 60 churches
across the country said they would play a more active part in
providing the public with a political education.
The seminar was organized by the Percik Foundation from
Salatiga in Central Java, the Indonesian Catholic Community
Forum, the Central Java Christian Church and the Asia Foundation.
Organizer Tukiman Taruno and Pradjarta Dirjosanjoto from the
Percik Foundation said church leaders agreed that a political
education was an important aspect of democratization.
They said voters should be educated in an adequate, planned
and proactive manner in order to make the election a success.
"The church intends to play an active role in the education
process," Tukiman said, giving no further details.
"A political education is considered to be good if it is
provided in a rational manner, if it does not encourage
sentimentalism, if it respects other people's opinions...and if
it encompasses realistic measures (that should be taken) to bring
about greater democracy," he said.
In a related development in Surabaya on Friday, a group of
intellectuals led by legal expert J.E. Sahetappy established a
new center for the study of democracy and human rights.
Sahetappy said the center, the Indonesian Forum for Human
Rights and Democracy, was established out of concern that
violence legitimized by the state would continue for the
foreseeable future, fueled by vested political interests and an
ignorance of the basic principles of democracy.
Sahetappy, who is a professor of law at Airlangga University,
said unrest in various parts of the country demonstrated that
human rights were being disregarded. He said that 60 percent of
the reported cases of unrest in East Java stemmed from human
rights violations and land disputes.
"The center will cooperate with the relevant institutions and
work to empower and defend those whose rights are violated.
"We are looking to help uphold human rights and democracy in
order to establish an ideal civil society," Sahetappy said.
"We will provide legal services an advice to both poll
monitors and those whose rights have been violated," he added.
He said the forum followed up on a proposal aired during
discussions with Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Abdurrahman Wahid
during his recent "open house" program in Jakarta. (har/nur)