Islamic teachers urged to empower community

REMBANG, Central Java (JP): Controversial, enigmatic Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid has dismissed as "naive" the notion that Islamic ulemas play an important role in politics.

Gur Dur, as he is better known, said yesterday that Moslem ulemas, or kyai, can't handle routine jobs let alone play politics on a wider context.

"Ulemas have no united stance in setting priorities of what Moslems should achieve," he said at a seminar for venerated Islamic teachers.

The last day of the two-day seminar held at the Roudlotut Tholibien Islamic Boarding School also featured known scholars like Mohammad Sobary of the Indonesian Institute for Sciences.

Hundreds of Moslem teachers and intellectuals attended the seminar at one of Central Java's largest Islamic boarding schools.

Gus Dur's view is contrary to the common conjecture that Moslems are playing an increasingly important role in national politics. The government's support in establishing the Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals Association (ICMI) in 1991 is widely seen as a sign of the bureaucracy's growing trust in Moslem groups. Numerous ICMI members hold key bureaucratic positions.

Gus Dur, who chairs the 30-million member Nahdlatul Ulama, is critical of the ICMI. He said that in order to empower the Moslem community the kyai should not be dependent on the government.

He underlined that many Moslem leaders still depend heavily on the government and enjoy facilities from it.

"Kyai will be able to play an important role in all aspects of life, including politics, only if they are independent from the bureaucracy," he said.

Gus Dur argued that Islam teachers are responsible for providing Moslem intellectuals with more modern views.

Empowerment

Meanwhile, Mohammad Sobary said that Islamic teachers and ulemas should be directly involved in the everyday activities of their communities in order to empower them.

He suggested that kyai should take the social work of Roman Catholic priest Y.B. Mangunwijaya as a model in helping empower their followers.

"From now on kyai should work to culturally, politically and economically empower their followers across the country," Sobary said.

Sobary, a researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, pointed out that Moslem ulemas should never absent themselves from discourses on liberation and empowerment movements for the good of their community.

"They should open their robes and enter the practical life of their community," Sobary said.

He said they should have the courage to abandon their old, established boarding schools to build ones in more humble places as Father Mangunwijaya has been doing.

What Father Mangunwijaya has been doing is a good example of real work to liberate the community from ignorance and poverty, he said.

Mangunwijaya is well known for his social work. His initiative to develop the slum areas along the Code River in Yogyakarta is widely acclaimed.

He also won sympathy from all quarters when he defended the farmers of Kedungombo in Central Java who had to make way for a controversial multi-purpose dam in the late 1980s.

Sobary stressed that Moslem teachers should revitalize their religion as a guiding light for modern people whose vision has been blurred by greed.

"To be able to perform their job, they should be independent," he said. (har/pan)