While reading Friday’s Jakarta Post, a visiting friend remarked we were “a funny” country. Perhaps he was trying to use a milder term for something else. His remark came after reading an item concerning Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairperson Tifatul Sembiring’s views on Bank of Indonesia’s Governor, Boediono, as the running mate of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for his next term in the office as president.

The second piece of news was about another equally “funny” article about the requirement for a female presidential candidate to avoid having sex for ten days.

Tifatul Sembiring is not very comfortable with Governor Boediono’s faith and says, as quoted by this paper, “Boediono has never been seen speaking to Muslim masses.”

So, although he regularly attends Friday prayers in the mosque, he is still considered that not sufficiently Muslim”.

What is more “funny” is that according to Sembiring’s statement, his constituents see Boediono as a nationalist, which is not a proper representation of Islam.

The question is; what then is the proper representation of Islam? Another more important question is; can Muslims be not nationalists at the same time?

What equally bothers me is whether the Christians, or Hindus, or Buddhists have any chance to be a vice president of this country. Where is this country leading to?

The former president of Prosperous Justice Party, Hidayat Nurwahid, who now chairs the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR),  made a statement awhile ago that he had received several SMSs saying that he was against national unity (NKRI) and the national ideology based on the principle of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity).

Hidayat denied all these allegations. It is now high time that he makes it clear what is his

understanding of Unity in Diversity in view of his party’s high commands statement.

Hidayat also refused to be associated with Saudi wahabis, who according to him were against political parties. What about the ideology of wahabis, which places uniformity above Unity in Diversity?

Of much interest is also the reason the Depok regent decided to close down a church, and to deny them a building permit. Interestingly, this regent belongs to Hidayat’s party. It would be interesting to hear Hidayat to speak on this subject.

There was another piece of news related to the sexual activities of female presidential candidates; perhaps the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) chairman, Fachmi Idris, has conducted extensive research on this subject. What he forgot to disclose was a more understandable reason behind this.

To quote the Post on this subject, “the requirement for a female candidate to avoid having sex is

to prevent the outcome of her medical check up from showing ‘biased’ results.”

What is not mentioned is whether the so-called “biased” results are only related to females alone, or also to the males?

The latest findings in the field of medicine have indicated that as women have their menstruation, men also experience a similar cycle with different symptoms. As women have menopause, men too have andropause.

Indeed, women can have xx chromosomes, men cannot have yy. Men inherit the xx chromosomes from their mothers. We are not discussing the issue of the superiority of men over women or vice versa. But let us talk of some sensibilities.

In this region of the world, we have never tabooed sex. We have made intensive studies about sexual energies. The ruins of our campuses at Sukuh and Cetoh at Central Java are proof of this.

Sexual energy when not channeled for higher purposes to make one more creative and innovative, will only try to find its release through intercourse and masturbation. By the way, the passion to hold on to a position or to fight for a position at any cost – are also prompted by unchannelled or rather mischannelled sexual energy.

I have many questions in my mind; my friends from overseas have many questions in their mind. What about you? The readers of The Jakarta Post. If we do not start questioning today, then tomorrow it may be too late.

The writer is a spiritual activist and the author of more than 120 books.

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