Siti Ruhaini: Indonesia Born from Moderation

PPIM.UINJKT.AC.ID – “Indonesia was born from moderation, brought together at one point (the same word), namely Pancasila,” expert staff of the Indonesian Presidential Office, Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin, said on Friday (14/8). She also reminded the audience that as citizens of a pluralistic nation, Indonesian people should be dynamic and open to differences.

She was speaking in a virtual seminar series of #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation) themed “Women Talking about Religious Moderation”, which was organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta through Convey Indonesia program.

Ruhaini said that one point needed to realize moderation was tolerance, and to achieve that, Indonesian people should see equality as a strength and diversity as wealth. People should also together ensure the realization of equality, in terms of equal access and public participation, and were obligated to take the good when seeing differences in religion, race, ethnicity, class, gender and other social categories.

“Our challenge in spreading religious moderation is about to what extent the religions [in Indonesia] are able to be open,” said the lecturer of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.

The next challenge, and the biggest one, to face was the existence of forceful political engineering that could create a “false” moderation and cultural backlash, Ruhaini said. Both could lead to cultural setbacks following a failure in establishing rational engagement.

Religious backlash, which meant religious setback and shifting from progressive thinking, was an obstacle that could hamper the spread of religious moderation. Another challenge was revivalism caused by a social distrust, which could create “charismatic” populist movements that were against the public order and public governance.

“Sociologically, Indonesia was established under various ethnic groups and is ethno-religious, which also adopted the principles of [philosophy] Basandi Syarak and Syarak Basandi Kitabullah [customs],” Ruhaini said. She, then, called on all communities to build public spaces together in egalitarian, equal and fair ways.

The virtual seminar on Religious Moderation is held every Friday via “Convey Indonesia” official Youtube channel. Besides Ruhaini, the discussion that was moderated by Convey Indonesia Team Leader Jamhari Makruf also presented notable female figures as speakers, including Oki Setiana Dewi (actress and doctoral candidate of the UIN Jakarta’s Graduate School), Alissa Wahid (National Coordinator of Gusdurian Network), and Yunita Faela Nisa (a PPIM researcher and Deputy Dean of Psychology Department from UIN Jakarta).

Writer: Andita Putri Ghassani

Editor: Zhella Apriesta