Unity in diversity principle basis of national unity

Jakarta, NU Online
Efforts to enhance national unity and integrity should be based on the spirit of "Unity in Diversity", Presidential Advisory Council Chairman Emil Salim said here on Tuesday.

Presenting the "Reflection on Dr Johannes Leimena Memorial Lecture" here on Tuesday night, Emil Salim said the national slogan of Unity in Diversity should be maintained through interfaith dialogs.<<>br />
"It is part of the future goal of our national hero, Johannes Leimena, whose nationalism and ecumenical idea inspired him with the struggle for independence, justice, and humanity, based on love of fellow human beings," Emil said.

He said the big challenges ahead should be anticipated by building the nation in the spirit of Unity in Diversity, democracy, and brotherhood through religious life.

According to Emil Salim, the existence of religious and ethnic differences should have pushed us to build national unity in accordance with the spirit of Unity in Diversity.

"If there are differences in ethnic and religious identity , we need interfaith dialogs because brotherhood is the key to respect religious differences," Emil said.

Emil was of the opinion that through a good cooperation among educational institutions, Islamic schools of Koranic studies, and churches, poverty in the country could be eradicated.

"We should not look at ethnic and religious differences but try to understand and respect the religion of other people in our common effort to combat poverty in the country," Emil said.

On the same occasion, former Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif said the figure of Johannes Leimena, popularly known as Oom Yo (1905-1977), was still relevant to be remembered and refreshed in the collective memory of the Indonesian community when the issues of unity, pluralism, political morality, and national cultural diversity were warmly discussed.

Ahmad Syafii said that according to the philosophical theology of Johannes Leimena, politics were not a tool of power in public life but the capability to give the best possible service to the community.

"The noble values Leimena had advocated have long been missing from our political stage, while religion and the state philosophy of Pancacila as the moral sources of the nation have ceased to be a reference in our nation`s political life," said the former Muhammadiyah chairman. (ant/dar)