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IL News 022/2014


Jakarta, October 30th 2014

 

Leimena Institute, in collaboration with Indonesian Christian University (UKI), Graduate School of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, and Driyakara Philosophy School, held a Roundtable Discussion in Jakarta, Thursday (30/10).

This edition of Leimena Institute News will quote a news from daily newspaper KOMPAS, which describes several ideas that came up in the event.

Leimena Institute, in collaboration with Indonesian Christian University (UKI), Graduate School of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, and Driyakara Philosophy School, held a Roundtable Discussion in Jakarta, Thursday (30/10).

This edition of Leimena Institute News will quote a news from daily newspaper KOMPAS, which describes several ideas that came up in the event.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS (31/10) — The Government is requested to refer to Pancasila and the UUD 1945 in managing the religious life in Indonesia. Anyone, individuals, groups, or institutions that defies the constitution that guarantees religious freedom and religion practice should be punished according to the law.

That is one of the ideas that surfaced in the discussion with the theme “Relations of Religions and National Law in Plural Society” taking place at Indonesian Christian University (UKI) Jakarta,Thursday (30/10).

Present in the discussion was, President of Leimena Institute Jakob Tobing; law lecturer from Regent University, Canada, James A. David; former Consitutional Judge (MK) Harjono; researcher from Hudson Institute, Washington DC, United States, Paul Marshall; Professor from Driyarkara Philosophy School, Franz Magnis Suseno; and politician from PDI-P (Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle), Eva Kusuma Sundari. The event was conducted by the Rector of Indonesian Christian University (UKI), Maruarar Siahaaan.

Jakob Tobing reminded, that Indonesia is a lawstate. The Law guarantees protection toward human rights, including rights for freedom of religion and religious practice according to ones belief.

Magnis Suseno complimented Indonesians, who managed to acknowledge Pancasila as the state’s principal and UUD 1945 as the constitution. Every group, clan, religion, and class are accepted, nurtured, and are equal in the eyes of the law. The constitution guarantees that people would not experience discrimination because of their religious belief.

“Pancasila and Human Rights cannot contradict each other. We have to correct the deviant interpretation of Pancasila about the principals of Human Rights,” said Magnis Suseno.

Eva Kusuma Sundari emphasized that Indonesians need to establish Pancasila as one language and reference to solve various national problems. We cannot allow groups to issue policies that contradicts the values of Pancasila. The government should be the main actor in managing Pancasila.

“Currently there are 368 discriminative regional laws, and 274 of it targets the women. For example, the regional law that forbids women to go out at night. This kind of law cannot be allowed. It has to be assured that democracy function fairly and is not sabotaged by local regional agenda,” Eva said.

Paul Marshall reminded, that referring to past experiences in the world, religious freedom is hampered by two factors. First, when one particular religion is made as the state religion. Second, a state overly secular that it complicates religious expression.

Both religious state and overly secular state became a problem in religious freedom. Indonesia and its principal Pancasila showed an interesting model since it acknowledges and supports various religions, doesn’t enforce one religion, and tries to erase discrimination.

James A. David emphasized the need of freedom in functioning religion. There are a lot of religion that develops in the world. In fact, even in one religion there always are different groups. Because of that, there needs to be principals of toleration and mutual respect.

Harjono hopes that the state will be more serious in their efforts to interpret Pancasila in order to maintain the religious life in Indonesia. The freedom to have religion and practice religion according to their belief really has to be protected by the law. (IAM)

Source: Kompas Cetak, page 3, Friday, October 31st 2014