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)