Army should stay out of election process, religious leaders say
Protestant leaders ask the two candidates to end religious discrimination.
Jakarta (AsiaNews/EDA) Leaders of Indonesia's major religions recently met army Chief of Staff General Endriartono Sutarto and asked him to ensure that there will be "no interference by the military in the upcoming presidential run-off election".
The meeting was attended by the representatives of the country's two major Islamic associations Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Protestant Churches, the Confucian Community of Indonesia (MATAKIN), the Buddhist Conference of the Mighty Sangha (KASI) and the Prajaniti Hindu Indonesia (PHI).
Next Monday, Indonesian voters will be able to choose between outgoing president Megawati Sukarnoputri (who won 26.6 per cent in first round voting) and her challenger, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (who came in first with 33.5 per cent). According to the latest opinion poll, 52 per cent favour Susilo.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif said: "In the meeting we challenged the army chief to maintain security and political stability whilst staying neutral in the election run-off." According to him, General Endriartono reassured his guests that the military would remain impartial and that any soldier who disobeys orders would be punished.
Such reassurances were necessary after stunned Indonesians learnt that 21 army vehicles drove hundreds of students from al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu, West Java, to a polling station in the first round vote. Golkar's campaign had been able to mobilise these "voters" on behalf of its candidate, former General and third finish Wiranto. "The al-Zaytun incident cast doubts among the public over the military's neutrality in the presidential election," Syafii Maarif said.
Following their meeting with army chief, religious leaders went to see the candidates. They told Megawati and Susilo's running mate Jusuf Kalla that the new president's priorities should include the eradication of corruption, an end to religious discrimination, the elimination of poverty and national security.
Protestant leaders were especially adamant in asking the two candidates to make a commitment to end religious discrimination. "In many cases we have learned that religious tolerance is mere rhetoric, which eventually restricts our efforts to guide our congregations," they said in a statement. "We regret," they added, "the fact that the radicalism that provoked conflict between followers of different religions has never been resolved," this in reference to the conflict opposing Muslims and Christians on the Molucca Islands.
More concretely, Protestant leaders asked the two candidates to suppress the regulation that requires official permits for building places of worship, a regulation that, according to them, is discriminatory vis-à-vis Christians for they are almost never granted the right to build churches.
Rev Herman Saud, Papua head of the Christian Synod, also told Megawati and Kalla of the concern Christians have over the possible application of sharia law in the country.
If elected, Megawati said that she would remain committed to Pancasila and the pluralistic political and social principles of the constitution.
For his part, Kalla stated that sharia law applies only to Muslims. "Sharia", he said, "has been adopted only with regards to Muslims in the same way that Christianity requires its followers to go to church. We should not view the issue with a narrow mind," he added.
However, the concerns voiced by Christian leaders are not without merit. The Susilo-Kalla ticket, which is leading in the polls, was endorsed by the Crescent Star Party (PBB), a party that has been campaigning for sharia's implementation. (LF)
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