Gus Dur questions motive behind nationalism drive

JAKARTA (JP): Vocal Moslem leader Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday said the current official drive to fire up people's nationalist sentiments was being engineered to serve the interests of those in power.

The nationalism campaign was designed "to support the power holders in their attempt to strengthen their elite groups," said the chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama. He also heads the Forum for Democracy, an organization of intellectuals and government critics.

Speaking at a seminar on nationalism organized by the Indonesian Nationalist Students' Movement, Abdurrahman said the campaign to instill a greater sense of nationalism in the people often betrayed the spirit of nationalism itself.

As a simple "concept of territory", nationalism was in danger of being eroded because nations were forming regional groups for economic, political and security reasons, he said.

Nationalism as a process of history had failed to touch the most important aspect of people, which was their ability to think logically, he said. Instead, the current drive to invoke nationalism had appealed only to people's emotions.

"Nationalism has become big through a process of militancy and glorification of the past. In short, through emotion-invoking processes," he said.

The result of the misguided campaign, Abdurrahman said, was a sense of nationalism which was filled with prejudices.

"This ultimately means a betrayal of the original aim of nationalism," he said. "The process of history has caused the nationalism drive to lose its ability to stay loyal to its goals...instead it has helped create new forms of elitism."

Abdurrahman cited the 1990 establishment of the Indonesian Association of Moslem Intellectuals, chaired by State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, as an example of a nationalism drive which borders on prejudice.

"Intellectuals are boxed into groups," he said. "This only shows that nationalism has been serving as a tool to support the power holders."

Abdurrahman said that the administration of the late president Sukarno had made similar mistakes, noting that Sukarno initially adhered to the principles of egalitarianism and only later become an authoritarian ruler.

"Sukarno forgot that egalitarianism could not remain a goal only, but should also characterize the process of achieving the goals," he said.

Public discussion of nationalism takes place every year around May 20, when the nation commemorates National Awakening Day.

Last year, President Soeharto called on Indonesians to keep the spirit of nationalism alive, both to ensure unity among the different groups of people in the country and to meet the challenges facing the country as a result of global change. This year Indonesia marked the day by launching a drive for national discipline and the use of correct Indonesian language.

In a speech on Wednesday, Abdurrahman was more upbeat about the future of Indonesia, saying that the nation would be able to retain its integrity over the next 50 years.

Addressing some 300 students of the Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Abdurrahman said Indonesia would remain solid as long as the different ethnic groups and religions continued to co-exist peacefully, Antara reported yesterday.

He gave at least three reasons for his conviction: the increasing mobility of the various ethnic groups, the increasing use of Bahasa Indonesia nationwide and the current administration's efforts to bring about greater social justice.

"In Jakarta or in Ambon, people who are posted in official institutions come from different backgrounds," he said. "You can find Ambonese in Java, and vice versa."

"It's true that 76 percent of (Indonesia's) total funds are circulating in Jakarta alone, but there are signs that the development of remote places is not being neglected," he said. (swe)