Religious-based groups should hold more dialogs
Religious-based groups should hold more dialogs
JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces (ABRI) has called on all five
religious-based intellectual organizations to hold regular
dialogs to strengthen the national culture.
Addressing a seminar jointly organized by the five groups,
ABRI Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs Lt. Gen. M. Ma'ruf said
members of these associations are in a position to promote the
development of national culture, provided they can put aside
their own religious attributes.
"Intellectuals and their organizations should articulate their
social responsibility in a critical, creative and objective way,
without being hampered by their own cultural attributes," Ma'ruf
said, quoting Edward Shils in Encyclopedia of The Social Science.
The cultural attributes should be "neutralized" to allow these
organizations to hold creative dialogs, he added.
The seminar on national culture, which was opened by President
Soeharto on Friday, is jointly organized by the Association of
Moslem Intellectuals (ICMI), the Association of Catholic
Graduates, the Association of Christian Intelligentsia (PIKI),
the Forum of Hindu Intellectuals and the Association of Buddhist
Intellectuals.
The seminar at the Sunlake Hotel, which winds up today, look
at the national cultures from various perspectives.
Ma'ruf, who provided the security perspective, said that the
religious attributes used by these organizations could also
become a source of division and conflict.
"If not neutralized, the cultural attributes can lead to
disputes not only between intellectuals and their organizations,
but also between the communities they represent," he said.
A number of politicians and analysts have warned that the
growing influence of ICMI in the political arena could revive the
highly divisive sectarian politics in Indonesia.
While not fully ascribing to this theory, Ma'ruf said that
more dialogs among these religious-based intellectual
organizations would promote greater tolerance among the various
religious communities they represent.
"With and through such dialogs, the intellectual organizations
can develop religious tolerance, solidarity and brotherhood among
themselves and religious communities," he said.
For its part, ABRI is also prepared to hold periodic dialogs
with the organizations, to discuss ways of enhancing national
security and ways of solving various problems the nation is
facing, he said during the questions and answers session.
"Our door is always open to your organizations. Let us hold
constructive dialogs on various issues and problems the nation is
facing," he said.
PIKI Chairman Cornelius Ronowidjojo, who also chaired the
session, quickly hailed Ma'ruf's offer as the beginning of ABRI-
civilian dialogs that had never taken place in the past.
"This is progress in the nation's history," Cornelis said.
Ma'ruf said Indonesia's cultural diversity could strengthen,
or weaken the national culture, depending on how society, and
particularly its intellectuals, treat the issue.
"The challenge for intellectuals is how to interpret
heterogeneity into reality, so that it becomes a strength for the
nation," he said.
He said Indonesia must learn lessons from Yugoslavia and the
former Soviet Union, two nations that disintegrated along
ethnical lines.
Indonesia, with approximately 350 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups
and different religions is quite prone to disintegration, he
added.(rms)