'Openness' must be seen in cultural context
'Openness' must be seen in cultural context
JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung asked the powerful Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) to share the responsibility for safeguarding national unity.
"Ensuring national integration is the responsibility of all citizens, including ICMI," the general said when addressing a national workshop of the organization here on Saturday.
He called on ICMI and other organizations to promote tolerance, solidarity and patriotism and warned that a religious- based organization had the danger of becoming a disintegrative factor.
Established in December 1990 with strong endorsement of President Soeharto, ICMI is often criticized as sectarian organization nurturing political interests of its members.
Opening the three-day workshop on Friday night, ICMI chairman B.J. Habibie reiterated his denial of the allegation, saying that the organization served the interest of the whole nation.
The three-day workshop attended by about 450 ICMI members from across Indonesia and foreign branches tried to identify the challenges, problems, alternatives and chances of the development.
Feisal reminded all socio-political organizations in Indonesia on the need to understand the blowing wind of political openness in the local context.
He said that the openness should also be pursued in the Indonesian way, such as avoiding criticizing people in public because the manner would not be effective.
"We are not a barbarous nation which hurt the feelings of others. We have our own ethics and way on how express our views," he said.
He said social organizations, including ICMI, should also understand the openness in the context of political stability and national integration.
"The nation which consists of numerous ethnic groups living in thousands of islands across the country may disintegrate if issues, such as democracy, are over-exploited," he warned.
He insisted ABRI and the government will be consistent about their policy not to "sacrifice" the national development and unity to serve the interests of those ever demanding for democracy.
Illusion
Asked by a participant if it would be possible for ABRI officers to join social organizations, Feisal was quick to answer that ABRI members were not allowed to do so because they are supposed to serve all groups.
"ABRI takes no side and will never meddle in the internal problems of any organizations," he said.
Feisal said some people thought that political openness Indonesia pursues was about the unlimited freedom of expression, including criticizing people in public and anywhere they like.
"What a small educated part of our society often demand something which is strange to our culture. They think that all things can be spoken out. Of course this not right," he said.
Feisal pointed out that it would be an illusion to hope that the openness that develops in Indonesia would be comparable to that in the West.(rms)