The Cordoba Initiative and Its Controversies

It is still obviously remembered the attack of The Twin Tower of World Trade Center in 2011. As the tragedy is still being debated and also controversy, another controversy is there when Imam Faesal with his initiative in building mosque named The Cordoba Initiative. Thus, a big question arises as regards that plan: Should a mosque be built near Ground Zero?

How is the discussion about the Cordoba Initiative? Just take a look at the following discussion from New York Times Learning blogs.

Let's Discuss: Constitution and Atheism

The Constitution’s preamble states that Indonesia is based on “Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa”, meaning “Supremacy of the Supreme Being”. That sounds tautologous, but it is a more accurate translation than “Belief in God” since neither “kepercayaan” (belief) nor “pengakuan” (recognition) is mentioned.

Anyway, the idea that every citizen must assent to every statement in a nation’s founding documents is absurd. No one could then point out weaknesses in the Constitution so they would be stuck with it forever!
Fortunately, people in most countries have realized that constitutions are flawed products of history which eventually need completely rewriting or, as in the US and Indonesia, periodically amending.

As an example, the affirmation in the US Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” is plainly untrue. Tiger Woods was born with more golfing potential than the rest of us. It would be foolish to deny this just to avoid contradicting the declaration of independence, and sheer cruelty to jail a person for acknowledging Woods’s innate talent.
But, as it happens, the Indonesian Constitution forbids such cruelty in Article 28E paragraph 2, which grants every person the right to freely maintain her beliefs and to express her thoughts and attitudes according to her conscience. In addition, clause 28E paragraph 3 guarantees the freedom of every person to express an opinion, and clause 28F accords every person the right to pass on information through any available media.

So if the present case were to reach the Supreme Court, it would be constitutionally obliged to overturn the verdict against Alexander Aan, who was jailed for declaring himself an atheist.

Moreover, the Constitutional Court should strike down the law allowing only six religions since it contradicts article 28E paragraph 1, which guarantees every person the right to embrace the religion of his/her choice.

Of course in reality no such thing will happen because judges feel no obligation to uphold constitutional rights. They prefer transactional politics and legal horse-trading, just like ministers and politicians. But that does not mean that the Constitution can legitimately be interpreted as supporting religious oppression. It only means it is open to abuse.



***
Should you have your own perspective about the recognition of the atheism in Indonesia, please let us know through email or Follow us on Twitter. This will be great discussion if you can share your idea about this issue.


The article is written by John Hargreaves on The Jakarta Post.

World Hindu Summit in Bali

Bali was chosen as the formation of the world Hindu organization in line with the signing of the Charter of Bali by the participants at the meeting of the world Hindu leaders or “World Hindu Summit” in Denpasar, Bali.

After signing the Charter of Bali, Prof. Dr. Dr. Made Bakta steering committee chairman of World Hindu Bali Summit said that the new Hindu organization will be called the “World Hindu Parisadh” or World Hindu Parisada.

In the Charter of Bali (Bali Charter) that there are eight points of agreement signed by 200 delegates of Hindu leaders over the world and the representatives of local scholars from Indonesia.

Devotees present, plan to form a “World Hindu Parisadh” is one of the eight points of agreement contained in the Charter of Bali. “The purpose of this organization is to unite all the spiritual activity and devotion of the Hindus as a whole in the world, to promote human values ​​that exist in the teachings of Hindu scriptures, especially the value of Satyam (truth), shivam (wisdom) and Sundaram (purity).

This organization would be pursued to enhance mutual respect and respect among all religions in the world that can lead to world harmony.

Bali but believed to be the center of the formation of Hindu organizations, will also be established Hindu center of the world (World Hindu Center). It is expected there will be annual conference regarding this organization in Bali, and there will be more participations among scholars.

Most of the Hindu leaders were impressed that Hindu-Bali religion can survive well despite not being the dominant country embraced Hinduism. Even the Hindu religion can come together and strongly associated with the culture of Bali.

Let’s Discuss: Whether Tasikmalaya enforcement in implementing sharia law

According to the regional and autonomy administration law, each region in Indonesia the authority to determine our own administrative visions. This current issue appeared in the media is the policy from the Mayor of Tasikmalaya East Java in implementing sharia law.


This policy becomes debated as there will be confusion within the society. Firstly, there are two laws that will regulate the society. Secondly, the government of Tasikmalaya even also provides its own sharia law. It is predicted that there will be chaotic condition as the National Polic will be breached by this sharia poloic. 


“Law enforcement here will be different from that in Aceh. For example, there will be no canning. This ordinance is aimed more at educating people to live in an Islamic way,” The Tasikmalaya Scretary confirmed to The Jakata Post.


Questions:

1. Is it really urgent to apply this sharia law in such diverse country?
2. If it is yes then, how do the government control the misled laws in that city?
3. Do you think the implementation o sharia law will bridge the inteleqtualiay and harmony within the diverse scholoars and activis of interaith movemen,

Adapted from The Jakart Post - Monday 4/6/2012

KAMI Conference: The MICo, Best Big Five National Service Project

Indonesian Youth Alumni Conference or KAMI Conference has completed done in 3 June 2012, closed with an activity visiting Sanggar Akar (alternative school for street children conducted by an NGO concerning education and culture in South Jakarta). On the KAMI Conference, Malang Interfaith Dialogue (The Mico) has become one of the best five service projects. On that occasion, the pilot projects presented before the jury to get an appraisal well as feedback on this service project.

KAMI Conference was conducted at @america Pacific Place Jakarta, attended by many visitors as the majority of the American program alumni. With those youth alumni, the conference there was an interesting discussion during the question and answer session. The questions presented include how to order interfaith discussions can get an idea of ​​common ground without having a conflict, how the response from the community toward this forum, and so forth.

The presentation lasted about 20 minutes and got positive responses from visitors. Despite there was a presumption that service project concerning on interfaith aspect in Malang is not urgent as needed in areas such as the conflict in Poso, Aceh, or Ambon, but the MICo is able to participate and as a media in conveying the aspirations and increase mutual respect and understanding in preventing further religious frictions.

The bog five other service projects in the KAMI Conference are: promoting green living for wealth in boarding houses of the college environment, child trafficking, women empowerment in schools, and also English clinic as an alternative school in the remote areas in Aceh.

Pancasila for Our Classrooms

Strengthening pluralism, democracy and social justice as the basic values of the national ideology Pancasila is essential in developing a multicultural and democratic Indonesia. However since the fall of Soeharto, Pancasila has become marginalized both as the nation’s reference and social discourse, even in schools and colleges.

In the midst of widespread corruption, violence and threats from radicals, evoking Pancasila education in our classrooms is a must. Rediscovering Pancasila education for our children is urgent to ensure the future of our nation as we commemorate the 67th anniversary of Pancasila today.

We cannot avoid the reality that Pancasila and civic education is highly susceptible to the interests of the incumbent ruler in maintaining the status quo as happened in the past. Under Sukarno, civic education was no more than a transmission of his personal political beliefs. During the New Order, the regime held a monopoly in interpreting Pancasila by enacting the 36 items of the Pancasila code of conduct. Civic education was then reduced to a rendition of the regime’s interpretation of Pancasila for students from primary to university level.

Pancasila education lost its appeal soon after the New Order regime collapsed. National Education Law No. 23/2003 omitted Pancasila as a mandatory subject in the national curriculum. As a consequence, Pancasila now is simply an adjunct to civic education.

In the current curriculum, Pancasila is taught only in the first quarter of the academic year in the fourth and sixth grade of elementary schools and a half semester in junior and senior high schools. With the linear model of the curriculum, it is easy to understand why education institutions do not take Pancasila seriously. Nowadays, civic education is skewed to the study of politics, governance and constitutional law, even in primary schools that should cover only the basic knowledge and put more emphasis on character education.

The changes to Pancasila and civic education policies so far have not changed the generally dull characteristics of the subject. Pancasila and civic education are flooded with too many topics and dogma but do not encourage critical thinking. Pancasila and civic education are often taught by teachers with a narrow repertoire, low competency both in basic knowledge and teaching skills, so that they tend to stick rigidly to the official curriculum.

The learning process of the subject is therefore marked by the talk and chalk method, question and answer, or regular drills to accustom students to ticking the boxes of multiple-choice model tests. It comes as no surprise then that the subjects of Pancasila and civic education are so boring, unattractive and unpopular among our students.

Policy makers urgently need to bring Pancasila education back to schools as the nation’s moral guidance, without having to revive the old style of teaching.

In my opinion, at elementary-school level, Pancasila education should focus on character building. At secondary-school level students can be introduced to politics, governance studies and constitutional law under the umbrella of Pancasila and civic education. While at college level, students should learn the subject of Pancasila philosophy, in which students are given ample room to debate, reexamine and challenge Pancasila as against other major ideologies in the world.

Teaching Pancasila as the basic national values should not be monopolized by teachers of the subject of Pancasila education. It is the responsibility of all teachers to promote Pancasila as values that can be learned in all subjects, including math, science or even sports. Pancasila can be taught using the spiral model of curriculum in a continuous way at all levels of education according to the phases of child development.

Critical literacy derived from critical pedagogy is compatible to meet this need.

Critical perspectives in Pancasila education are shown in the ongoing program of critical literacy for the revitalization of Pancasila education conducted by Sekolah Tanpa Batas and Yayasan Tifa in three provinces. In the remote village of Waykanan, in the northern part of Lampung, an uncertified English teacher experimented teaching with Declan Galbraith’s song, “Tell Me Why”.

A small laptop, instead of a projector and a screen, and a mini speaker using an electric battery managed to grab the attention of junior high madrassa (Islamic school) students to follow the session enthusiastically. While learning English, the students could discuss the values of solidarity, social awareness and justice as reflected in the lyrics of the song, the values Pancasila advocates.

Critical pedagogy underlines that teaching is not just transferring knowledge. Production and reproduction of knowledge must occur in the classrooms. This can materialize by combining “reading words” and “reading the world”, reading texts always in context. Texts in critical literacy can be taken from news, novels, songs, poetry, video clips or films.

Here learning is not conducted in the classic banking model of education where teachers have the privilege of transferring knowledge. Instead they serve mainly as facilitators who raise questions for deep and critical dialogues in Socratic style classes. This approach allows teachers and students to confront the hidden curriculum, the reality both at schools and in society that contradict the values of Pancasila.

Rediscovering Pancasila education in critical perspectives will help us avoid repeating the past mistakes and misuse of Pancasila to serve the interests of the regime in maintaining the status quo and to conceal reality. Teachers should be given a broad space to adapt and negotiate the official curriculum.

Education bureaucrats should respect the professional discretion of teachers in determining the materials, methods of teaching and evaluation of the learning process. Only critical and authoritative teachers can propagate Pancasila education effectively in order to develop our children as responsible and active citizens in a multicultural, just and democratic Indonesia.

The article is written by Bambang Wisudo, director of Sekolah Tanpa Batas, a nongovernmental organization concerned of creative and critical education. Original source is from The Jakarta Post.

The MICo, Bridging Religious Diversity in Malang

Malang Inter-faith Community (The MICo) is now being nominated in the KAMI Service Project Competition and Conference Program. The MICo is initiated by three young scholars of American sponsored program: Nurona Azizah (Medical School, Brawijaya University), Sueb, S. Pd (State University of Malang) and Rif'atul Lum'ah (State Islamic University of Malang). All three are alumni of exchange programs funded by the Government of the United States that is IELSP (Indonesia English Language Study Program) in 2011.

KAMI (Community Young Alumni Indonesia) is reserved exclusively for alumni scholarship recipients from the Government of the United States. Each is a study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI), The Indonesian Youth Leadership Program (IYLP), Linking Individuals, Knowledge and Culture (LINC), the ASEAN Young Leadership Program, and Indonesia English Language Study Program (IELSP).This event has several purposes including the development of personality alumni, improving organizational and leadership skills, and enhance mutual understanding in relation to Indonesia and the United States among the participants and the local community.

For this KAMI Service Project Competition and Conference Program consists of four themes. Four themes offered include environmental, community activities, volunteerism, and religious diversity. Into the category of religious diversity, The MICo is as a forum that mediates the dialogue between religious communities in the region of Malang, especially at campuses in Malang. Among the entities included in this forum are students, religious leaders, government officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, as well as academics.

To PRASETYA Online, Azizah conveyed, Malang is a city where education of various regions in Indonesia. They come from various ethnic, religious and class. Conflicts and frictions could arise if there is no common understanding among tribes, religions and classes. By specializing in religious dialogue forum, The MICo has carried out its program for a month starting February 22 until March 22, 2012. Activities that The MICo held was the first seminar being attended by some religious communities including Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

The next agenda was a meeting to discuss in more detail the establishment of this The MICo. "If the forum has been formed it will be followed by inter-religious discussion on a regular basis to foster mutual understanding and tolerance," said Azizah to PRASETYA Online. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to minimize friction and conflict that may lead to more severe conditions such as war, terrorism, radicalism, and humiliation.

Among the participants who attended the first seminar held on March 10, 2012 is the representative of the people of Harmony Forum (FKUB) as well as students from UB, UM, UIN and Ma Chung. The conference was attended by over 40 attendances representing the six major religions. Speakers at the occasion were KH, Abdul Karim Udin, SH; H. Pastor Sudjoko Santoso and Drs. John Hadi Susilo, M.Pd.

On programs that have been held, The MICo was elected to the KAMI Service Project Competition and Conference Program will be held at 1 to 3 June 2012 in Jakarta. This activity is organized by the Center for Civic Education Indonesia (CCEI) and is supported entirely by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

The article is adopted from PRASETYA Online of Brawijaya University Press.