President appeals for national brotherhood

President appeals for national brotherhood

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid appealed in a
Christmas message on Monday to people of all faiths in Indonesia
to foster a stronger sense of brotherhood and unite to overcome
the tough challenges facing the nation.

Gus Dur, as the Muslim cleric is popularly called, said he was
deeply saddened by the fact that people in this country were
fighting, and even killing, one another, and that young people
were becoming more and more spiritually divided.

Quoting an old Islamic teaching, he said, "Muslims are taught
to foster brotherhood among fellow believers, brotherhood among
fellow countrymen and brotherhood among fellow human beings," he
said in his address during a Christmas celebration with
Christians at the Jakarta Convention Center.

"Through these three spirits of brotherhood we shall live
together in this country. I believe in my religion, but that has
not stopped me from fostering brotherhood with people of other
faiths," the President said.

"I never feel alienated when I am around people of other
faiths, whether it be Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even
Confucianism and Bahaism," he said, in an apparent major
departure from the state policy of not recognizing religions
other then Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism and
Buddhism.

He said he was particularly saddened a nation that professed
to respect differences, and whose richness was reflected by the
manifestations of different cultures, could still not accept the
presence of other faiths.

"We should work together as one nation although we have
different faiths. Our faiths should not be ones that keep us
apart. We have to face the challenges facing the nation together,
and not be broken apart," he said.

Speaking without a text, the partially blind President was
constantly interrupted by long applause during his short but
moving speech.

Former Cabinet minister T.B. Silalahi, who coordinated the
event and choreographed the elaborate and colorful Christmas
plays and music, described Gus Dur's speech as "invaluable"
adding that "all Christians are grateful to the President".

When Gus Dur, known for his love for classical music, arrived
at the Center, the choir greeted him with Beethoven's Ode to Joy,
said to be among the President's favorite symphonies.

He opened his keynote address with the traditional Islamic
greeting Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh, quickly
adding that the words, essentially meaning "peace be on all of
you", had universal values.

This is from the man who sparked public controversy in the
1980s by suggesting that Muslims in Indonesia should do away with
this Islamic greeting in preference to the shorter Indonesian
greeting Selamat ....

Gus Dur said Christmas was also a time to rejoice for Muslims
since the Koran recognizes the arrival of a savior to the world,
whom many Islamic experts agree was Jesus Christ.

"Christmas today is especially important to all of us. It
strengthens our bond as Indonesians, and it reinvigorates our
belief that keeping our territorial integrity is an absolute part
of our religious duty."

Referring to the conflicts in parts of the country, he said,
"For centuries, we have lived together in such harmony that it
has became a characteristic of our nation. We can only prevent or
overcome these conflicts by making a bigger commitment.

"That commitment is that as human beings, as children of the
nation, we shall live together under a Pancasila (the five basic
principles of the Indonesian Republic) state, and not a religious
state," he said to even louder applause. (emf/emb)