Politician says desire for Islamic state 'over'

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)