Yogie wants closer ties with ulemas

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)