Yogie wants closer ties with ulemas

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. has called for greater understanding between the government on the one hand and the ulemas and leaders of other faiths on the other.

The government and the ulemas must never be in conflict because the result could be fatal for the people, Yogie said at a congress held by Persatuan Islam (Persis), a socio-education Moslem organization.

"Sufferings will surely befall on the people if there is a clash between the government and the ulemas," he said in keynote address opening Persis' 11th congress at the Haj Dormitory in Jakarta n Saturday, Antara reported.

Ulemas should issue more fatwa, or religious edicts, for they provide the spiritual basis for many of the regulations issued and implemented by the government, he said.

This, he added, would ensure that economic development and the industrialization process would not lead to the degradation of the nation's spiritual and moral values.

Yogie said that the ulemas need to better comprehend the problems and challenges facing the government.

He stressed that relations between ulemas and the government should be one of two equals because they share ideals and missions, although they work in different fields.

Persis was founded on Sept. 12, 1923, with the objective of promoting the education and propagation of Islam in Indonesia. The organization now runs 259 pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) across the nation. The congress, which will wind up tomorrow, is also slated to elect a new leadership board and endorsed a new five-year program.

In his opening address, Abdul Latief Muchtar, the outgoing chairman of the central executive board, warned that the globalization process has transformed some of the values of society, most notably their increasing preference for material and earthly things at the expense of spiritual development.

Muchtar also criticized the misapplications of science and technology, particularly biotechnology for its development of transsexual operations, test-tube babies, transplants, sperm banks and so on.

Some of these developments, he added, have raised moral and ethical questions that should be answered by religious experts.

The current drive to strengthen human resource development should not only emphasize science and technological know-how, but also spiritual knowledge, he said. (emb)