Corruption, collusion flourish with religion

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)