Speak out of conscience

On June 13, 1999, I happened to listen to a BBC radio interview with the acting chairman of the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) about the alleged bribery scandal involving the then Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib, who was yet to be suspended from office.

The answers given by the acting chairman of ICMI were so absurd, and his all-out defense of Andi M. Ghalib and B.J. Habibie was so obvious, that the interviewer was curious whether his statements were really the reflection of his conscience.

In my opinion, as an organization of Muslim intellectuals in a country where the population is predominantly Muslim, ICMI can play its role as an authoritative pressure group toward the government in fighting for public policies and upholding truth and justice.

The same is also true of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI). Rather than issuing calls and appeals which may worsen the tendency of national disintegration, it would be better for MUI to popularize the idea that corruption, collusion and nepotism in all their forms are religiously illegal.

If only MUI were consistent with the idea of "amar ma'ruf nahi mungkar" (do away with vices and uphold virtues), I believe our nation would not be in the poor condition that it finds itself in now.

A. RAHMANTO

Jakarta