Don't politicize religions, says Gen. Feisal

Don't politicize religions, says Gen. Feisal

JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung
warned social groups yesterday against politicizing religions,
citing the risk of national disunity.

"The ethics and morality taught by religions should become the
foundation for political activities (whereas) politicizing
religions, where a religion is used to merely legitimize, is
inappropriate," Feisal said in an address when he inaugurated the
postgraduate school of Islamic studies at Muhammadiyah University
in Cirendeu, South Jakarta.

In a paper titled "the role of religious groups in building
national resilience", Feisal described how religions could become
either a uniting or a polarizing force.

"Religions can unite, but can also divide if people fail to
understand them properly and responsibly," he was quoted by
Antara as saying. He added that the country's diversity -- in
ethnicity or language, for instance -- may add to the threat of
national disintegration.

He cited an urgent "agenda" to be met if the nation is to
maintain its unity, namely helping religious groups comprehend
"religious ethics" and how to apply the ethics to preserve unity,
and their role in national political order.

Feisal also declared ABRI's commitment to usher in greater
openness. "It's regrettable, however, that at the same time we
still have groups in the community who politicize the issue (of
openness) and say that there's no democracy in Indonesia," he
said.

"These groups talk a lot about democracy without really
understanding what democracy is all about. The standards they use
are those of liberal democracy, which are different from the
democracy based on the state ideology Pancasila," he said.

Feisal did not specify any groups, but said that judging with
the wrong set of standards would surely fail to help the people
achieve "the goals of the nation".

Moslems account for 87 percent of the roughly 193 million
population of Indonesia, which has more than 300 ethnic groups
and almost 500 languages and dialects. Roman Catholics,
Protestants, Buddhists and Hindus make up most of the remaining
13 percent.

Until very recent, ethnic and religious tension still occurred
in the highly diverse regions, such as in densely populated Java.
Indonesia handles social, ethnic, religious issues very carefully
given their polarizing forces.

Time and again experts and community leaders take up the call
against the politicization of religions. One of the most recent
to take up the call was leader of the 30-million Nahdlatul Ulama
Moslem organization, Abdurrahman Wahid.

Abdurrahman, who is also chairman of the World Conference on
Religion and Peace, said that once religions are used for
political interests, social conflicts are bound to occur.

"Religion can only bring peace to the people if it accepts
plurality," he said in July.

A number of incidents arising from religious tension have
occurred last year and earlier this year, including the attacks
on a number of churches in some Moslem-predominant areas and the
attacks on Moslems in Christian-predominant areas. Abdurrahman
believed that they stemmed from some people's insistence that
they be given special treatment and poor tolerance of plurality.

However, he also attributed the tension to economic,
educational and sociocultural disparities. (swe)