By: Reza Setiawan
A number of interfaith leaders are committed and call for peace also calling for not politicizing religion especially ahead of the upcoming legislative elections and presidential elections in 2019.
The Office of the President’s Special Envoy for Dialogue and Interfaith and Civilization Cooperation (UKP-DKAAP) held a Year-End Reflection and Projection of Inter-Religious Harmony, which was attended by interfaith leaders from Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism calling for the people to guard harmony in the political year.
The President’s Special Envoy, Prof. Syafiq Mughni said, the religious leaders would continue to convey religious and civilization messages for harmony and national peace. In the event, Syafiq said, in 2019, the DKAAP UKP together with Indonesian religious leaders would continue to make efforts to maintain harmony between religious communities in the country and promote it abroad.
Welcoming the upcoming 2019 Presidential Election, he also advised all religious leaders and political elites to reduce statements that made the public noisy, so that harmony was maintained like previous elections. He said, lower the tension, reduce the intensity or sharpness of our statements. Must be more intellectual, more academic.
In the same place, the General Secretary of the Muhammadiyah Central Leader Abdul Mu’ti also called for that in the year the community politics prioritize harmony. According to him, religious people must be prepared to face political reality.
Moreover, according to him, various studies have shown that in religious activism there are currently new currents coming out of the mainstream. In Islam, the new current is outside Muhammadiyah or NU.
Mu’ti says that this is a reality. But we do not need to worry because the emergence of new currents is only due to political factors rather than theological factors.
Mu’ti said, this year religious people also have quite a challenge because of the many utterances of hatred or twist of hatred. Therefore, according to him, religious leaders have an important role to strengthen communication between religious groups.
Mu’ti explained that Pancasila teaching is very important, but more than that we also need to communicate more frequently, meetings, so that we can build closeness between religious followers.
For all parties, especially the political elite and the presidential / vice presidential candidate pair, as well as the success team, they must prioritize the attitude of statesmen, be spiritless, and obey whatever the results of the presidential election. It is expected that the government, and security apparatus to be neutral, professional, and uphold the law and harmony for the sake of the establishment of quality and civilized democracy.