Masyumi rejects Megawati?

Masyumi rejects Megawati?

From Rakyat Merdeka

This newspaper carried in its June 2, 2001 issue, a news report titled Masyumi rejects Megawati as president. The report said that according to Abdullah Hehamahua, who spoke in his capacity as the general chairman of Masyumi (modernist Islamic) Party, Islam could not accept a woman as president.

This gender issue that Mr. Hehamahua touched upon is outdated because today Indonesians of various religious persuasions -- Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism -- no longer raise gender as an issue.

It is true that Muslims form the majority of the Indonesian population but that does not necessarily mean that this state belongs absolutely to Muslims. Indonesians professing other religions also own this state.

Indonesia is not an Islamic state but the Unitary Republic of Indonesia and is led by a president. Anybody, regardless of their sex, can be elected president as the only requirement is that he/she is capable of leading this country and acceptable to all the ethnic groups across the archipelago.

As Islamic law does not prevail in Indonesia, it is no use connecting the gender issue with the Koran and Sunnah (Islamic law based on the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad).

H. ENGKOS KUSNADI

Sukabumi, West Java