Clergymen vow to address 'moral crisis'

Clergymen vow to address 'moral crisis'

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top religious leaders vowed on Wednesday to work together to
lift the country from what they consider the prevailing "moral
crisis".

Emerging from a two-hour closed-door meeting, the chairman of
the 40-million-strong Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama,
Hasyim Muzadi said that they would set up a working committee to
address the "acute moral illnesses afflicting society".

"We shared our concerns in the meeting and agreed that the
nation is heading for all-out moral destruction," he said, about
the meeting attended by representatives of various religions.

"We are sitting together here to convey our commitment that we
need to do something for our country," Hasyim said, in a brief
media conference at NU headquarters in Central Jakarta.

The leaders, he said, had agreed to form working committees to
carry out "real and concrete" steps to dampen the moral crisis.

Muhammadiyah and NU had together assigned six figures -- three
from each organization -- to follow up the establishment of the
committees.

The two Islamic organizations have a combined membership of
some 70 million.

Indonesia has been reeling under an economic crisis for four
years with mounting separatist movements in Aceh and Papua and
conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Poso and Maluku.

Hasyim said the movement should take a more hands-on approach
rather than simply intellectual discourse.

Hasyim said the meeting was a follow-up of the Jan. 2 landmark
meeting by the country's two largest Islamic organizations.

In the meeting, both Muhammadiyah and NU -- which often differ
in their opinions regarding religious and social affairs --
reached an agreement on two issues.

The first was that they would unite to solve the country's
pressing problems and second they would cooperate to promote a
true and moderate face of Islam.

"People warmly welcomed the last meeting," Hasyim said, "and
there were suggestions later from several parties that the
meeting should be followed by another meeting, which would
include other religious leaders".

Prominent Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid told journalists
after the conference that the committees would deal with real
issues like how to deal with neglected children, how to raise
nutrition for the poor and so forth.

The committees, he said, would later include individuals from
other religions.

Nurcholish said he believed that concrete steps would bring
real social and religious harmony to society.

"Issues like poverty or unemployment are a source of social
chaos," said Nurcholish.

Elucidating what the leaders meant by moral crisis, he said
that currently there were many people who claimed that "they had
done right deeds, when in fact they had done bad deeds".

This, according to Nurcholish, had left the country "morally
bankrupt".

Among the leaders present in the meeting were Syafi'i Ma'arif
from Muhammadiyah, Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja from the
Indonesian Bishop Conference (KWI), Weinata Sairin and Andreas A.
Yewangai from the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI),
Hajriyanto H. Thohari from Muhammadiyah, Ketut Wirdhana
representing Hindu believers, Haksu Tjhie Tjay Ing representing
Confucianists (Konghucu).

Also present were Father Mudji Sutrisno, representing
intellectuals and Djohan Effendi, representing the Indonesian
Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP).

Roeslan Abdul Gani, a veteran freedom fighter and nationalist,
hailed the meeting and urged all members of society to support
what he called "non-violent moral rearmament".

"Nationalists and religious followers should work together to
resolve the moral crisis through moral rearmament," he said,
adding that this would help solve the nation's ongoing
multidimensional crisis.

Yewangai said that it was important to revive high moral
standards, which would ease the crisis.

"The moral crisis not only harms individuals, it harms the
whole of society," he added.