Taking a look at the ministry of religion

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung

Currently the Ministry of Religious Affairs has become a focus of public attention. Former minister Said Agil Hussein Al- Munawar, and former director general for Islamic guidance and haj management, Taufik Kamil, are accused of misappropriating billions of rupiah which is supposed to be used only for the benefit of the people. It is often said that corruption within the Ministry of Religious Affairs especially with regard to the management of haj funds is rampant and systemic.

So far the existence of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the government structure has always been justified by a questionable myth that the state has a supreme moral authority in guiding people's religious life.

While there is no doubt about the importance of the role of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in a multiethnic society like Indonesia, the scandals under investigation have damaged its moral authority in the eyes of the public.

It is true that the embezzlement of public money occurs in other ministries too, but because of its unique position in our society people are particularly alarmed by the moral degradation at the ministry. Thus, it is perfectly reasonable if the public set higher moral standards to evaluate its performance.

The disclosure of corruption cases within government bureaucracies over the last few weeks is just a small part of an extensive and deep-rooted corruption network in our country. Thus, what happens to the Ministry of Religious Affairs is a reflection of the general condition of our society. There is an inconceivable contradiction between the progress in people's formal religious life on the one hand and acute moral deterioration on the other.

We have seen that since the 1980s visitors to the houses of worship of various religions have been on the rise. But at the same time organized religion has tended to become an end in itself with the effect that distortions of various forms in religious practice continue to take place.

The implication of the shallowness of our religious life is quite evident in society. People tend to extol success over contentment, domination over compassion, and quick fixes over life-long commitment. Religious belief as one's source of values and inspiration is supposed to give more priority to the building of internal character rather than external appearance.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has done almost nothing in giving the public some sort of moral guidance so that they may have a truthful understanding of how to become a religious being while at the same time acting as a responsible citizen.

So far, several directorates general for the guidance of people of different religions have functioned only to accomplish state interests in society. The promotion of religious life is left to the religious organizations themselves.

Despite its weakening legitimacy, we still hope that the ministry continues to play a positive role in society in order to ensure the perpetuation of Indonesia's tradition of tolerance and harmony among people of different religious beliefs. If the government is serious about its public guidance of religious life in Indonesia, there are three types of intelligence that the Indonesian people badly need today.

First, the government should facilitate the promotion of spiritual intelligence as the actualization of the first principle in our state ideology Pancasila. Being spiritually intelligent means that we honor God Almighty in all our ways and acknowledge Him in our everyday conduct.

Second, the Indonesian people have to develop emotional intelligence in the sense that we are capable of controlling our emotions especially when it comes to our reaction toward sensitive religious issues in society. Last but not least, we all need to equip ourselves with social intelligence or our ability to live together despite our fundamental differences in terms of religion and ethnicity.

If, together with the organized religions, the Ministry of Religious Affairs could accomplish this task in our society, then we would have good reason to be hopeful that the slogan "unity in diversity" is not just an empty slogan.

The writer is head of the Department of International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung. He can be reached at aleks@home.unpar.ac.id.