Corruption, collusion flourish with religion

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): A sociologist observation: Corruption and collusion in Indonesia are an astonishing phenomenon. It flourishes along with rigorously thriving religious activities.

"Normally, the more rigorous religious activities become, the less corrupt practices will be," Syafii Maarif of the Yogyakarta State Institute of Islamic Studies told a seminar on Thursday.

Maarif, who is also a deputy chief of the 28-million-strong Muhammadiyah Moslem organization, said social ills such as corruption and collusion are worsening and becoming transparent among people in well-placed positions.

"They have become an amazing phenomenon because they go along with the religious activities everywhere," he said in the seminar on religions organized by the Indonesian Communion of Churches.

The question is, he said, have mosques, churches, monasteries and temples been helpless to improve the nation's declining morality.

According to Maarif, the government-sponsored courses on the state ideology Pancasila, which are obligatory for civil servants and students to attend, are yet to prove an effective means of creating a clean governance.

"What else can the nation do to remedy the declining morality if it means courses like the Pancasila ones turn out to be ineffective? Can we be sure that our legal system can improve the situation?" he asked.

Maarif said many people fatalistically believe that social ills like corruption and collusion are inseparable parts of economic progress that also happen elsewhere in the world.

"I personally cannot accept the notion that corruption is a cost of economic development. Rather, it is a sign that the nation is sick," he said.

Religions, he said, should work harder to straighten out people's morality.

Morality will become an even more serious issue when Indonesia has become an industrialized country, he added. (har/pan)