TALKING BOOKS

Executive director of think tank Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate, Sukardi Rinakit (left), chats with Islamic scholar Moeslim Abdurrahman at the launch of Sukardi's latest book Gusti Ora Sare (God Never Sleeps). The book is a compilation of Sukardi's opinion articles published by various national media outlets. The launch took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in South Jakarta on Wednesday. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

The state should focus on adopting the universal principles of all religions in its policies and practices, instead of passing religion-based laws, a Muslim scholar told a discussion Wednesday.

Nahdlatul Ulama leader Masdar F. Mas'udi said the state did not need to impose rigid formal rules to imbue public life with religious values.

"The adoption of religion into public life should not take the form it did in the Middle Ages. I think what should be adopted from religions are their moral values and public ethics," Masdar said.

He said every religion had good values that could apply universally.

"Christianity teaches love, Buddhism forbids greediness, Hinduism eschews violence and Islam calls for justice," Masdar said.

"The question is how to transform these values into public policies. For example, how to formulate public policies that take the side of unfortunate people."

Masdar was speaking at a discussion called "Religions, Pancasila and the Nation's Cultural System". Other speakers included cultural observer Eka Budianta and researcher Anas Saidi Mahfud from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

According to Masdar, religions cannot be held completely separate from the public life, as surrendering all public matters to human reasoning would destroy life itself because humans had both constructive and destructive potentials.

He said religions could not remain silently in their mosques or churches while the outside world was facing problems.

"Religions that do not take action are irresponsible religions," said Masdar.

Masdar said civilizations supported by religious values lasted longer than those that despised religions, such as communism, which lasted less than a century.

Anas said the state ideology Pancasila (the five principles) is now facing its greatest challenge, as demonstrated by a survey published in the mass media that found increasing demands for Islamic sharia law.

"On the one hand, our society does not have a proportional understanding about religions as ideology. On the other hand, Pancasila is not put into practice in public life," Anas said.

As an example of how Pancasila is not implemented in real life, Anas cited Indonesia's macroeconomic system, which sides with foreign interests.

Pancasila was dominant during the New Order regime, which obliged all institutions to embrace Pancasila as their only ideology.

"Unfortunately, this was more because of a powerful doctrine rather than communal consensus," Anas said.

For Anas, Pancasila, as an ideology, has the power to integrate Indonesia.

"Pancasila is a combination of religions, Indonesian culture and Western values, including democracy, human rights and pluralism," he said.

Masdar said Pancasila actually accommodated an ideal proportion of religious values in public life.

"It's neither secular nor theocratic," he said. (alf)

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