Religions urged to play key role in development
Religions urged to play key role in development
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has called on all religions and their educational institutions to play an active role in building a strong spiritual foundation in Indonesia.
Soeharto said yesterday that such a foundation is vital to accelerating the pace of national development.
"All religions constitute a national strength which is pivotal and important in developing the nation... They should play a common role in laying down a moral, ethical and spiritual basis for national development," he said, while opening a consultative meeting of leaders Protestant churches grouped in the Indonesian Churches Community (PGI) and rectors of Christian universities.
The ceremony was held at the State Palace.
Religious leaders and intellectuals should formulate policies and programs on human resources development necessary for the nation's advancement.
Last month, while opening a seminar jointly organized by five religious-based intellectual associations, the President called on all religious communities to forge cooperation among themselves, rather than merely promoting tolerance.
The five intellectual associations concerned were FCHI (Hindus), ICMI (Moslems), ISKA (Catholics), KCBI (Buddhists) and PIKI (Protestants).
Yesterday, Soeharto asked that the associations to follow up on the seminar's conclusions and disseminate them in their respective religious communities.
He said that, while it was not easy for religious communities and intellectual organizations to forge cooperation, the government would keep its role in this to a minimum.
"Any interference by the government and other religious communities of a religious group's internal affairs would certainly be wrong and would create new problems," he said, adding that freedom of religion was the most fundamental human right.
The President said Indonesia's religious communities and the government should work hand-in-hand in national development.
"There had been a national consensus that development is aimed at developing our people. This means that the fruits of national development must be enjoyed by all layers and groups in society: children, youth, adults, the elderly, women and men, both in urban and rural areas," he said.
PGI Chairman Sularso Sopater said after the ceremony that the prolonged internal rift plaguing Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, has come to an end.
"The internal rift at the university has been solved after the opposing parties agreed in principle to resume learning activities under the mediation of a five-member team set up by the university's founding churches," he said.
The rift, which began in 1992 over the election of the university's rector, reached a peak with a violent protests on the campus last month. Several of the university's lecturers have been dismissed during the conflict. (rms)