Religious leaders' help needed to end conflicts

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Religious leaders must accept pluralism to prevent the country from disintegrating as religious intolerance has been threatening national unity, a scholar warned here on Tuesday.

"We must acknowledge that there are interreligious conflicts. And if religious leaders are open to pluralism, they will become an integrated strength that can minimize conflict among the people," said Sumartana, head of the interfaith dialog forum INTERFIDEI, in a seminar on Religion and the National Integration Process.

The event was held at the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta.

Sumartana explained that it was not easy to end the prolonged sectarian violence in Ambon because religions were involved in the conflict.

The conflicts between Christians and Muslims in the Maluku province and its capital Ambon have claimed thousands of lives from both sides. Observers said that the government has made no adequate effort to stop the fighting, which started almost two years ago.

According to Sumartana, religious leaders have different views and opinions from the people involved in the fighting. "The religious leaders have their own perceptions. Some of them are open to dialog with leaders of other religions, while many others are not."

"Religious organizations have yet to convey proper understanding to their supporters about respecting differences. None of the organizations have provided honest and adequate information about the good aspects of the other religions."

"The teaching of religion in Indonesia is 'theological killing', so there is little possibility for religious followers to respect one another."

Said Aqil Siradj, chairman of the large Nahdlatul Ulama, and Ahmad Syafii Maarif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, did not speak in the seminar.

Political culture

In another seminar held also in Yogyakarta on Monday, noted historian Kuntowijoyo said that Indonesia's political culture had been idle, taking the country to a point of disintegration.

"Consequently, a new political culture is badly needed to strengthen the country's unity," he said.

Speaking at a seminar on national unity at the Jayakarta Hotel here, the Gadjah Mada University professor said that Indonesian people tended to look back, causing their political knowledge and behavior to become stalled. "The result is that Indonesia has failed to catch the golden momentum to become a great nation, despite the fact that it got its independence 55 years ago."

"Our political culture has been too static. We always reject breakthroughs in politics by, among other things, gagging those who voice rational ideas," said Kunto.

"Furthermore, the administration has been dominated by individuals bent on political maneuvering, rather than creating a system (of government) with a clear course."

He said Indonesia had been imprisoned by political rhetoric for years. "We lived in socialist rhetoric during first president Sukarno's tenure. The reality was that we lived in a dictatorship.

We were in development rhetoric under former president Soeharto, while the fact was that the country had been full with (unfair) conglomeration. Now the rhetoric is democracy, but the fact is we have a one man show," he said.

He reiterated that besides new political culture, the country also needed a president who had vision and mission and did not like political improvisation.

"The country also needs clear ideology," he said.

He explained that political improvisation was sometimes very expensive, citing President Abdurrahman Wahid's agreeing to changing the name of Irian Jaya to Papua and the hoisting of the Morning Star flag in Irian Jaya. "The policy had very negative political consequences that had not been anticipated."

"The state ideology of Pancasila must become a radical ideology, meaning that it can not be manipulated by the head of state. Sukarno made Pancasila concise by formulating Trisila and Ekasila, while Soeharto translated Pancasila as a means to support capitalism. There are signs that the current President would imitate his predecessors." (23/sur)