Religions being trivialized

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid expressed his deep concern over the current conflict between religions, which he said represented a setback of religious life of people in the country.

Abdurrahman said religions in the country was undergoing trivialization, a process in which religion is reduced into superficial elements and slogans, especially among the Muslim people.

"Religion has been seen as formality only by certain sides, taken as slogans and put it in an inhumane field, destroying our human instinct," he said in the closing ceremony of the five-day Indonesian Catholic Church's Grand Synod, at the Senayan indoor tennis court stadium here on Sunday.

Attending the ceremony, which simultaneously marked the official opening of the Indonesian Bishops Conference's meeting, were bishops, clergymen and thousands of Catholic adherents from Jakarta and its outskirts.

The President said the religious trivialization has extended to a horizontal conflict between the modernist and the traditionalist.

"In the past, we were facing a horizontal conflict between the haves and the have nots, but now, we are apparently facing one between the (Muslim) modernist, say, Muhammadiyah, and the traditionalist, Nahdlatul Ulama," he said.

He said this situation came to him as a surprise because under democracy, the nation should no longer use physical force and instead use rational and arguments in a continuous dialog.

The president did not say this, but it was clear that he was referring to the row between him and his critic Amien Rais, former chairman of Muhammadiyah. Amien recently urged the president to step down because he was considered unable to cope with major problems.

Gus Dur said the ongoing conflict between the two Muslim organizations must be managed, despite its complicated causes, "because it has led to a tense situation we are entering at present."

According to him, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama were a bigger part of the nation so that the conflict between the two organizations has effected the national life.

He admitted it's not easy for him to cope with the conflict but said he would be able to do it.

The president said further that amid the democracy era, all religious communities that constitute a national brotherhood must respect the difference of opinion.

"The difference of opinion in the heterogeneous society should be accepted as normal as it is in a democratic realm," he said, adding that reversely, it was not normal for religion adherents from one religion to another religion.

Peace

Meanwhile, Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja, archbishop of the Jakarta diocese, called on the government and other sides in the society to work hard to create peace and better the people's social welfare.

"Along with Catholic adherents at the grassroots level, we want the president and other national leaders to create a certainty of peace and of a social welfare for all the people," he said in his address to the meeting.

He said the certainty of a peaceful condition could be created if personal conflicts in the political elite and among groups in the society are solved, the law is upheld, the national brotherhood was promoted and all components take an active role to fight for social justice.

"We have been tired of numerous prolonged conflicts that have yet to be managed well, of corruption cases that has yet to be investigated thoroughly and of the low awareness of the law," he said.

He said the Catholic community wishes an established fraternity that accepts the religion and ethnic pluralism, fights for social justice for all and gives a special attention to isolated ethnic groups.

"We also appeal to the government and security authorities to solve bloody conflicts in Maluku, Kalimantan, Aceh, Papua and other regions immediately. The government should give a wider space for the people's participation in solving their own conflicts," he said. (rms)