Moslem male president

It is shocking how ignorant a group of Moslem clerics can be about today's presidential/vice presidential candidates. Last year in November, clerics from the East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Moslem organization, recommended that a woman might have been chosen as vice president because Hardiyanti Rukmana, daughter of then president Soeharto, would be promoted as veep (most probably they would approve a woman candidate for the presidency if Hardiyanti Rukmana were to be president). These different conclusions reflect that they sell Islam as political commodity.

Their recommendation on a Moslem president is absolutely unconstitutional and portrays Islam as an intolerant religion. Don't they remember that we once had a devout Christian, violinist Amir Sjafroeddin, as our prime minister in 1947. And 30 percent of the members of the cabinet of prime minister Mohammad Natsir of Masjumi (the Moslem intellectual political party) in 1950 were non-Moslems.

We, Moslems, have a long multicultural experience and have been friendly with other religions. For example, during the Ummayyad period (661-750), with an empire stretching from China to the Atlantic Ocean, five Popes came from the Ummayyad empire, a solid Moslem country: John V, Sergius I, Sisinnius, Constantine and Gregory III. This is a mark of the triumph of Islam and other religious tolerance.

So, as a Moslem, I dub those clerics as puritan fanatics. In other words, a new Taleban (referring to the reclusive Afghan regime).

IWAN SATYANEGARA

Jakarta