Boediono underlines key role of diversity

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 05/22/2009 1:22 PM  |  National

The next government must be based on Indonesia's pluralism to assure the country's survival as a nation state, Boediono, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's running mate for the upcoming election, told a gathering here Wednesday.

During an event to commemorate the country's 101st National Awakening Day, he said he viewed Indonesia as not only composed of diverse ethnicities, religions and cultures, but also of diverse potentials and interests.

"A good government has to be aware of these diversities, because only then can our people can survive, because they have chosen a government that is ready to defend *the state ideology of* Pancasila, and to celebrate our *Unity in Diversity' as God's blessings," he said.

The gathering was attended by a diverse audience that included economists, lawyers, scholars and writers. Journalist Goenawan Mohammad, lawyer Nono Anwar Makarim, novelist Ayu Utami and economist Chatib Basri were among them.

The former Bank Indonesia governor said Indonesia's nationalism had grown from its rich diversity, and not from a single ethnicity.

"The country's national awakening was born from a patriotic ardor of plurality," he said.

Boediono went on to illustrate how youths with various ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds united to form the Boedi Oetomo organization on May 20, 1908.

He said Dutch colonialism had served to racially segregate the country's citizens by dividing them by ethnicity, which only brought about the students' strong awareness of the equality of the human race.

"In decades past, the world has come into a global economy, but with the strength of our *Unity in Diversity', the global economy shall not, and cannot, submerge the national economy," he said.

Boediono also recited first president Sukarno's 1945 speech on the birth of Pancasila, including a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "I'm a nationalist, but my nationality is humanity."

A recent move to apply sharia-based regulations in many regions in Indonesia as well as a recent ban on the Islamic sect Ahmadiyah practicing its belief have raised questions both at home and abroad over Yudhoyono's commitment to pluralism.

The recent passage of the pornography bill, strongly supported by Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, also cast doubt on his pluralist stance.

Attendants at Thursday's gathering expressed hope that Boediono's speech was the answer to their concerns.

Noted writer Laksmi Pamuntjak pointed out the longtime close interactions across different ethnicities and religions within the country, despite efforts by earlier regimes to use the differences to create conflicts.

In a direct application of pluralism and equality, Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia, chairwoman of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace, delivered her prayer in Indonesian.

It is customary at a national gathering that a prayer is led by a male cleric and recited in Arabic.

The commemoration was also colored by patriotic songs performed by the a capella group Jamaican Caf*.

Anton Mirzaputra, a member of the group, said, "Whoever the president and vice president are, I hope they bring back patriotic songs to schools to revive the sense of nationalism." (iwp)

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