Gus Yahya: RI needs to promote global consolidation for peace in Afghanistan

Jakarta, NU Online

Secretary General of the Advisory Board (Katib Aam) of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) KH Yahya Cholil Staquf (Gus Yahya) urged the Indonesian government to immediately mobilize global consolidation to create peace in Afghanistan.

 

Gus Yahya made the remarks at a webinar entitled Indonesia's Role in Peace Efforts in Afghanistan which was broadcast live through the TVNU Youtube channel, Sunday (19/9/2021).

 

“We need to do global consolidation. (The government of) Indonesia cannot possibly help Afghanistan alone. What can be done, if we really want to help Afghanistan, let's try to promote global consolidation," he said.

 

It is hoped that this global consolidation will create a framework that is reasonable and realistic, and can be used to start planning the future of Afghanistan after the Taliban took power there.

 

Another thing that can be done to create peace in Afghanistan is to provide opportunities for the Afghan people who have dominant power to be able to try to build order in their own country.

 

"I think the first thing we should strive for is to provide opportunities for the Afghan people to establish order among their own people in the life of the nation among them," Gus Yahya said.

 

“That means we must continue to push the Taliban or whoever is in power in Afghanistan to reject the global conflict agenda of any kind. That means we have to encourage and help them to reject Al-Qaeda," he added.

 

Because as long as Taliban is still following the path of struggle carried out by Al-Qaeda which has a global war agenda, the Afghan people will never have the opportunity to help themselves.

 

Helping Afghanistan

Gus Yahya then reminded the main goals of helping the Afghan people to truly experience true peace. He insinuated various parties about the various roles aimed at building the future of Afghanistan.

 

“The question for us now is, who do we want to help Afghanistan for? Is it for the Afghan people or for our own political interests? To build a better political image for Indonesia or are we really concerned about Afghan people and want to help them?” Gus Yahya asked a rhetorical question.

 

Gus Yahya emphasized that if the people of the world, including the government and Indonesia really want to help the Afghan people, they must really think about everything that is useful for the people in Afghanistan.

 

"(And) it is not only (aimed at) making maneuvers just for performance, just looking good on the surface, but not really creating changes," Gus Yahya concluded.

 

Current situation of Afghanistan

As reported by DW Indonesia, the current conditions in Afghanistan are alarming. The reason is, the Central Bank of Afghanistan announced on Tuesday (14/9/2021) that the Taliban confiscated cash and gold worth more than 12 million US dollars (Rp170 billion) from former government officials.

 

The Taliban search took place at the residence of former Vice President Amrullah Saleh and a number of high-ranking government officials. Since taking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has also taken over control of the central bank.

 

But since the Taliban came to power, banks in Afghanistan have run out of cash. In fact, some of them are on the verge of closing. The struggling banks raised concerns about cash shortages to the Taliban.

 

Banks in Afghanistan were forced to ration the amount of money to be issued at their branch offices. This is done so that the banks do not actually run out of money. The reported weekly withdrawal limit is $200.

 

Reporter: Aru Lego Triono

Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq