By: Naufal Putra Bratajaya)*
The entire community should be obliged to firmly reject the practice of politicizing identity and also the politicization of places of worship. Therefore, it is very important to establish friendly relations from across religions, across ethnicities to cross-community leaders to further strengthen the bonds of brotherhood among people in the country.
In this regard, a number of interfaith leaders and also interethnic leaders in Sanggau District, West Kalimantan Province (West Kalimantan) have a very strong commitment to reject the practice of identity politics and the politicization of places of worship which may have the potential to be carried out by a number of unscrupulous celebration participants. Democratic Party of the upcoming 2024 General Election contestation.
This strong commitment has even been embodied in a joint commitment text, so that it becomes an official written commitment and not just spoken orally. The commitment text was read out by religious leaders in Sanggau Regency.
It is undeniable that all elements of society, including religious and ethnic leaders, must be able to continuously improve and build synergies in a compact manner in order to truly reject the practice of identity politics and the politicization of religion in places of worship.
The activity of reading the text of the commitment to reject the practice of identity politics and the politicization of places of worship was directly initiated by the Religious Communication Forum (FKUB) and was attended by as many as 70 participants.
The participants who attended consisted of various cross-elements of the community there, ranging from religious leaders, community organization (Ormas) leaders, youth leaders as well as from the Head of the Office of the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) of Sanggau Regency, the Sanggau Resort Police (Polres) represented by Head of Community Development Operations Development Affairs (KBO Binmas) Sanggau Police, Head of the National Unity and Politics Office (Kesbangpol) of Sanggau Regency and Chair of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) of Sanggau.
With the presence of all parties from all elements of society, it indicates that the people really want an election event in 2024 that can be free from the practice of identity politics and also from the politicization of places of worship.
The Chairperson of the Sanggau District FKUB, Pastor Suyono Asun, stated that gathering activities between elements of society, especially by all people and interfaith and cross-ethnic figures, is indeed a very important thing to be able to do because it is a real form of concern from FKUB regarding the implementation of the 2024 Election.
It is a shared obligation and a responsibility that should be shouldered together, especially for the FKUB, namely to support the upcoming 2024 election event to run well and smoothly without any interruptions. Especially the possibility of a potential threat in the form of friction between communities horizontally as a result of the practice of identity politics through the politicization of places of worship.
The community has also made a strong commitment and has a collective agreement, namely firmly stating that a place of worship is not an appropriate place to be used as a practical political practice or as a stage for campaigning by election participants.
Awareness of how sacred a house of worship is that should only be intended for the public to carry out all kinds of worship activities to get closer to God is indeed an awareness that must be owned by all parties.
There must be a clear separation between practical political interests which only aim to gain votes from the people and attract public sympathy alone, with the interests of the whole community. The reason is, with this clear awareness, it will not undermine the harmony that has existed so far in society and does not create the potential for horizontal friction which in fact seriously threatens security stability and also threatens the unity and unity of society.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Sanggau Regency Bawaslu, Alipius, gave his highest appreciation for the strong commitment that has been inflamed by all elements of the nation from across sectors, from religious leaders, inter-ethnic figures to mass organization figures to completely reject identity politics and politicization. the house of worship.
Therefore, it is also very important to have friendly relations which should always be well established between cross-religious sectors, between ethnic groups and between mass organizations in the community itself. When the silatrahmi is well established, it is hoped that in the future the community will also become more aware and be able to jointly reject the practice of identity politics by politicizing places of worship.
)* The author is a Contributor to the Inti Media Institute
