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Jakarta Archbishop calls for stronger national unity in Xmas message
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Jakarta Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo. (Courtesy of/ww.sesawi.net)
T
he Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) have issued a joint Christmas message that calls for the strengthening of national unity according to Pancasila, the state ideology.
Jakarta Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo said that the country’s sense of unity was currently at peril.
“There are parties that have directly or indirectly shown a tendency to take a different path other than our national principle, Pancasila,” Ignatius said on Monday at Jakarta Cathedral, as quoted by kompas.com.
He said that such parties were unable to respect Pancasila and accept it as the country’s founding principle.
If such parties respected Pancasila, he added, they would implement its principles in their entirety. For instance, Ignatius said, government officials who were detained for graft were unable to put into action Pancasila’s fifth principle of social justice to all citizens of the country.
“How many lawmakers have been arrested for corruption? They should have conformed to the law [they made] for the prosperity of the people [they represented],” he said.
Ignatius offered two messages with regard to the matter: First, not to forget the history of how the country was founded upon Pancasila as its basic principle; second, that all citizens should take responsibility for keeping that history alive by implementing the values of Pancasila on a daily basis. (nmn/ahw)
