NU, Muhammadiyah renew antigraft vow
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's two largest Islamic organizations renewed their commitment on Wednesday to push for a movement against endemic corruption in the predominantly Muslim country.
With the renewed commitment, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah will start to strengthen their accountability by improving audit management, establishing good governance guidelines and ensuring transparency in their reports.
"We have sent letters to our cadres serving in corruption- prone positions to avoid bad practices and we have declared that NU will not stand by them if they are proven to be corrupt," NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said during Wednesday's ceremony to sign the pledge.
The two organizations first declared an antigraft commitment in October 2003 along with non-governmental organization Partnership for Governance Reform, but the progress has been slow partly due to "internal leadership distortions" within the Islamic groups.
"It will take time to build up awareness about this movement among their members," Partnership program manager M. Ichsan Nurbudi said.
"The first two years were used to prepare the basic principles for the movement."
Muhammadiyah, for its part, proposed a similar basic program aimed at developing an interpretation of Islamic law, which would serve as the theological base to prevent and stop corruption.
"We will also establish monitoring centers in our society to help us gather information on corruption, report it to the relevant authorities and lend moral support for legal action taken against such cases," Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif said.
Both NU and Muhammadiyah, which have 80 million members between them, vowed to start the anticorruption campaign from within their respective organizations.
They will continue with the movement to help eradicate corruption in the nation, which has been often ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world.
"We will help educate the public, both through our organizations and through cultural and religious discussions on the massive destructive effects of corruption," Hasyim said.
He explained that the first priority would be to shift the dominant public perception of corruption as being something simple, such as stealing or bribery, to involve other forms as well, including dishonesty in the use of time.
"Giving people information on the devastating impacts of corruption will help encourage the public to shun such practices," he said.
Hasyim said NU would promote a hidup halal, kerja keras (honest life, hard work) campaign through all means at its disposal, ranging from dakwah (religious preaching) to forming pressure groups.
The 40 million-strong organization is currently running pilot projects on both internal and external anticorruption campaigns in East Java and West Java, he said without elaborating.
"NU and Muhammadiyah have a number of economic activities and strive to attain a prosperous society, and thus should promote role models on how to develop good governance internally," Partnership executive director H.S. Dillon said.
He said his organization would provide technical assistance, experts and monitoring to help the two Muslim organizations run their programs.
Another Partnership activist Bambang Widjojanto said that with their huge membership, NU and Muhammadiyah were expected to be able to end the prevalent permissive attitude toward corruption.
"And by conducting good governance, the two organizations will set a good example for the autonomous groups affiliated to them to follow suit," Bambang added.(003)