Islamic teachers urged to empower community

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)