VP Ma’ruf Amin Expects FKUB Becomes Inspiration for Global Religious Harmony
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin opens International Harmony Week and 6th National Conference of FKUB at Sutan Raja Hotel in North Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi province, Friday (19/11). (Photo by: BPMI of Vice Presidential Secretariat)
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has expressed hope that the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) and all of its activities to improve tolerance and religious harmony in Indonesia, which has a pluralistic society with different religions, tribes, customs, and cultures, will become an inspiration for global religious harmony.
“This activity is expected to enhance tolerance and religious harmony in Indonesia, as well as give an inspiration for religious harmony in the world,” the Vice President said while inaugurating the International Harmony Week and the 6th National Conference of FKUB at Sutan Raja Hotel in North Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi province, Friday (19/11).
According to the VP, Indonesian people are religious people, so religious harmony is vital to maintain as it is the primary element to create national harmony.
“Religious harmony does not come on its own. In fact, we must always maintain and preserve it,” he said, adding that religious organizations and the Government established the FKUB whose main task is to take measures to maintain religious harmony, including by having dialogs or mediations to prevent conflicts or resolve disputes.
“I appreciate the role and contribution of FKUB as a highly effective medium in building harmony and resolving disputes or conflicts with religious background,” he said.
On that occasion, the VP also reminded the FKUB that the challenges they currently face and will face moving forward will be heavier, one of which is the advanced digital era that enables information to spread fast.
“There is positive information, but there is also negative information, including issues that cause religious conflicts through conspiracy theories and hoaxes,” he said, adding that hoaxes develop faster like geometric series than confirmative news that is likened to arithmetic series.
“In addition, a negative aspect of digital information technology is that it has the ability called algorithm curation, which leads everyone or every group of people to believe only the information supplied from their group as the truth, while other groups hold on to the truth their own groups believe,” he said, adding that this causes social divisions, including religious divisions.
“This is one of the challenges that the FKUB must respond to so as to maintain and preserve religious harmony,” he said.
Therefore, at the event that adopted the theme of “We are All God’s Creation”, the VP reminded the audience the importance of tolerance and prioritizing common interests.
“The founding fathers managed to formulate Pancasila as the national principle, which is a national consensus,” he said, adding that the consensus was achieved because the founding fathers had empathy, tolerance, and selflessness, and they put common interest over the interest of their own group.
“We must preserve, keep, maintain these positive characteristics for the integrity of the nation and the Republic of Indonesia, which we must bequeath to the next generation, especially millennials, generation Z, and younger generations,” he remarked.
At the end of the event, the VP hit a tetengkoren, a musical instrument from North Sulawesi, to mark the inauguration of the International Harmony Week and the 6th National Conference of the FKUB and signed an inscription to establish Tomohon city as the City of Tolerance in Indonesia. (BPMI of Vice Presidential Secretariat/UN) (DH/EP)
The official website of the Vice President can be accessed through this link.
