Everyone Must Work Together to Safeguard Indonesia, Says Gus Mus

Kompas/Riza Fathoni

Cleric and writer KH Ahmad Mustofa Bisri (also called Gus Mus) receives the Yap Thiam Hien Award 2017 for upholding human rights on Wednesday (24/1) at the National Library in Jakarta.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – All components of the nation must work together to safeguard this home called Indonesia, to remind one another to fix mistakes and to prevent all efforts to undermine the nation. Injustice is a major problem to be resolved. Leaders, as reflections of their people, must give examples.

“Injustice makes people angry. Anger will lead to radicalism. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was established to fight injustice,” said Ahmad Mustofa Bisri, head of Raudlatut Thalibin Islamic boarding school in Leteh, Rembang, Central Java, in his speech upon receiving the Yap Thiam Hien Award 2017 in Jakarta on Wednesday evening (24/1/2018).

According to Gus Mus, as Ahmad Mustofa Bisri is popularly known, the people see that corruptors can get rich without doing much work. On the other hand, commoners cannot get rich despite working hard. “Then they get angry,” Gus Mus said.

He added that Indonesia needed to ensure justice for all and improve its lacking law enforcement. Protection on human rights must also be improved.

These must be done together as Indonesia is the collective home of all Indonesians. Domestic problems cannot be fixed by just one man, a group of people or a coalition of several groups.

Political and religious leaders must serve as examples as the people will always look up to them. The former supreme leader of the nation’s largest Islamic mass organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, said if the leaders obeyed the law, the people would too. On the other hand, if the leaders are corrupt, the people will also be corrupt.

“If the leaders are prone to insulting each other, the people will be even more so. This is all because leaders are always in front, while the people in the back look at them. Wherever [the leaders] go, the people will follow. If the leaders are good, the people will be good too,” he explained.

Kompas

Cleric and writer KH Ahmad Mustofa “Gus Mus” Bisri (center), the recipient of the Yap Thiam Hien Award 2017 for human rights, is photographed (from left) with Law and Human Rights Minister Yasona Laoly, Yap Thiam Hien Foundation chairman Todung Mulya Lubis, Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti and Yap Thiam Hien’s daughter, Yap Hong Ay, at the award ceremony held on Wednesday (24/1) at the National Library in Jakarta. Gus Mus was recognized for advocating human rights through his sermons and his writings.

Dedication to human rights

The Yap Thiam Hien Award is given to those deemed to have extraordinary dedication to upholding human rights in Indonesia. The award is named after lawyer Yap Thiam Hien (1913-1989) who dedicated his life to fighting for justice and human rights. The award was first given in 1992.

The 2017 Yap Thian Hiem Award ceremony was attended by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, KPK deputy chair Laode M Syarif and members of Yap Thiam Hien’s family, among others.

The five-strong jury panel considered Gus Mus a cleric with a firm stance in safeguarding a humanitarian morality amid Indonesia’s diversity. Members of the jury panel are Yap Thiam Hien Foundation head and senior human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, former diplomat Makarim Wibisono, Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace chair Siti Musdah Mulia, women and child’s rights activist Zumrotin K Susilo and Press Council chair Yosep Adi Prasetyo.

Zumrotin said the jury panel named Gus Mus this year’s awardee because of the current real-world context of a handful of political elites abusing identity politics to secure victories in political contestations. Gus Mus was deemed to have continuously fought for justice and human rights using peaceful ways. “He fights with his own methods, through his poems and writings. People long for his writings as they provide them with peace. This is the best way. His writings and poems have deeply influenced the people,” he said.

In his speech, Todung Mulya Lubis said Gus Mus was not just a cleric, a religious leader and a Muslim scholar, but also a human rights fighter. Gus Mus has been firm in upholding human rights to practice religions as well as in fostering diversity and fighting for social harmony.

Todung said Gus Mus was not the type of human rights activists who participated in street protests. However, Gus Mus does not only pray and preach, despite his prayers and preachings having shown extraordinary support for human rights to practice faiths and religions.

“Gus Mus always stands in front to respect everyone to practice their faiths, even if the faiths are not the same as his. In the end, for Gus Mus, religion is a very private matter between a person and his or her God,” Todung said.

According to Todung, during the 2017 gubernatorial election in Jakarta, Gus Mus was brave in rejecting the politicization of religion. He refused to use religion on political stages and in campaigns to discredit political opponents. Todung said he shared Gus Mus’ sentiments, as he believed that the use of religion in politics would be a step back.

“Gus Mus really understands that his voice in defending religious freedom and the nation’s diversity is a constitutional right guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution,” Todung said.

He continued that, amid the rise of identity politics and sectarianism, Gus Mus’ wisdom serves as reminder that Indonesia is an open and tolerant nation that opens its arms to all. Therefore, he concluded, Gus Mus was highly worthy of this year’s Yap Thiam Hien Award.

Yasonna H Laoly said he hoped Gus Mus could continue spreading his aura of calmness in the effort to nurture diversity in Indonesia, which is heterogeneous in terms of culture, religion and physical traits.

(GAL/REK/ISW)