Politician says desire for Islamic state 'over'

JAKARTA (JP): The government's efforts to create laws benefiting Moslems have paid off by reducing the community's distrust and the desire to establish an Islamic state, a politician said Saturday.

Hartono Mardjono of the United Development Party (PPP) told a discussion at the National Library that the government had striven to produce laws which were sensitive to Moslems' aspirations since the 1988 general session of the People's Consultative Assembly. He cited laws on Islamic courts, banking and food as examples.

"Consequently, Indonesian Moslems' misperceptions of (the government's decision to impose) Pancasila as the sole state ideology had faded," he said. "Those laws ended the Moslems' doubt that this state could guarantee (free) religious life.

"There's no longer any need (for Moslems) to engage in debates over whether (they need) to establish an Islamic state," said Hartono, who is also a legal expert. "It's over now."

The discussion was held to review Perjalanan Politik Bangsa: Menoleh ke Belakang Menatap Masa Depan (The Nation's Political Course: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead) by Anwar Harjono, the chairman of the influential Islamic Propagation Council (DDII).

Anwar is also a former senior member of the defunct Masyumi, once Indonesia's biggest Islamic political party.

The discussion also featured legal expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Many analysts believed that the early 1990s marked a period in which Moslems and the government came full circle in their relationship, with one eagerly trying to accommodate the other. The government produced policies that benefited Moslems, who are the majority among Indonesia's religions, and obtained their support in exchange.

One of the impetuses for improvement of relations included the establishment of Association of Indonesian Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI) in 1990. Led by B.J. Habibie, who is currently research and technology minister, ICMI was believed at one stage to wield great political clout for Moslems.

In the previous two decades, Moslems were marginalized politically. The situation was often attributed to the earlier tension between the government and those Moslems striving to establish an Islamic state.

Anwar reiterated in his book that since Indonesia's independence in 1945, no Moslem political leaders had ever rejected Pancasila as the state's ideology. The leaders, including Mohammad Natsir, were of the opinion that the five tenets in Pancasila were a partial reflection of Islamic teaching.

They said the campaign of Masyumi and other Islamic political parties in the 1950s backing Islam as the state's ideology rather than Pancasila was more an effort to fight the growing influence of communism.

"The faction of the (now outlawed) Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) then supported Pancasila, too, but imbued it with an atheistic interpretation," Yusril said.

In his book, Anwar also pledged Moslems' commitment to the state. "This republic is ours together. Let's address its shortcomings, which are many, together.

He listed some of these deficiencies as corruption, collusion, manipulation, abuse of power to amass wealth at the expense of others and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. (swe)