Indonesian government should stop lying

Published Date: January 11, 2011

By Konradus Epa, Jakarta

Religious leaders have asked the Indonesian government to stop lying as they set 2011 as the year to resistance lies.

“We call on all national elements, especially the government, to stop lying,” said Father Antonius Benny Susetyo, executive secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI)’s Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, at the end of the Jan. 10 meeting of religious leaders in Jakarta.

Father Susetyo said Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim and Protestant leaders are also concerned about the environmental destruction and human rights violations which have worsened the country’s poverty situation.

The government’s neoliberal economic policy has failed to create justice for all people and is contrary to the 1945 Constitution, they said.

“The monster of fragility is surrounding our country. Morality, politics…everything is fragile,” said Ahmad Syafii Maarif, a Muslim leader and founder of Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity. He urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to be more sensitive to the country’s problems.

Sri Pannyavaro Mahathera, a Buddhist monk, said the religious leaders demanded the government stop telling lies and curb lying from becoming a national attribute.

Also attending the meeting were Capuchin Bishop Martinus Dogma Situmorang of Padang, Reverend Andreas Anangguru Yewangoe from the Communion of Churches in Indonesia and Nyoman Udayana Sangging from the Association of Indonesian Hindu Dharma.


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