Both the vice president and Habibie's State Secratary recently made it clear that Indonesia is a religious country, meaning that many inhabitants are religious, but that it is not a religious state. In a rising debate about the topic they expressed their view that there is no official state ideology, and that Sharia law enforcement is therefore not an option in Indonesia.

On July 28th vice-president Jusuf Kalla, speaking to a group of university students in Banda Aceh, said that every Muslim was able to live according to Sharia law, if he or she would like to do so. But it did annoy the vice-president that certain local administrations find it necessary to enforce Sharia type laws, such as requiring government offices to have Arabic scripts on official signs.

He said it was of course necessary to apply certain rules for example to regulate the hajj to Mecca but otherwise he found no need to put issues of worship under government regulation.

And on July 30th Professor Dr. Muladi, head of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) and a former Justice minister under Suharto and State Secretary under Habibie, spoke at a conference on “The Existence of Pancasila as the State Ideology and the Nation’s Way of Life Amid Cultural Shifts in the World.” He spoke against the possibility of Sharia law in Indonesia as it would conflict with the basics of the Indonesian state.

Many new temples, Mosques and churches are build in Indonesia, making Muladi ask the question why the rise in religious devotion, does not go together with a decline in corruption. It has often been the idea of people in Indonesia that they do not privately abide by the religious ethics they endorse publicly. As if they hold a holy book in one hand and take money with the other.

Summary: Yunus - 31/07/07
Original article:
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/1361/holy-obligation/?fromrss=1