Emergency in Indonesia: educating new Catholic politicians
J. Kristiadi, a political analyst, spoke at a meeting organised by the Bishops’ Commission for the Lay Apostolate. "The political class is weak and abject,” he said. “The Church must educate the new generation to do something for the common good." For the Archbishop of Ende, "politics is not a 'dirty' word” as some may want to believe.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – The Catholic Church and the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI) have no more projects to train young Catholic politicians, and this has led to a drop in the quality of legislators, harming people's lives.
For J. Kristiadi, a well-known Catholic political analyst, the need to organise schools to train young people about politics with dignity and honest is an emergency the Church must face. Kristiadi spoke at a meeting organised by KWI’s Commission for the Lay Apostolate, which was attended Catholic politicians from different parties.
According to the political analyst, at present Indonesia lacks talented young Catholic politicians. There are some, but they do not have great political weight. Others have been caught up in corruption cases or shown their incompetence.
For him, the “fault” for this lies with the KWI, which has not had a long-term strategy. Hence, the Church should invest time, money and resources to develop a new political class that can contribute to the common good.
Kristiadi has a long experience in the field of politics, having been in close contact with many Christian politicians from different parties, and acted as their mentor.
To show the weakness of the current political class, compromised and only interested in money, he cited the recent attempt in parliament to change the country’s anti-corruption laws.
According to the Catholic analyst, President Joko Widodo is opposed to the change, but is being pushed by politicians in his own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on behalf of third-party interests.
Conversely, Kristiadi cited some positive initiatives by two Jesuit priests during the darkest period of Indonesian history when, right after the rise to power of General Suharto, between 1966 and 1968, two million people were killed accused of "communism."
At that time, Fr Joseph Beek, a Dutchman, launched a month-long outreach programme (called Kasebul) to educate new Catholic politicians so that they could join the ruling party, Golkar.
A Swiss priest, Fr Franz Daehler did something similar, organising a month-long retreat (called Retnas) to prepare Catholic politicians to counter Communist ideology and participate in public affairs.
Mgr Vincentius Sensi Potokota, archbishop of Ende and member of the Commission for the Lay Apostolate, shares Kristiadi’s concerns. However, he noted that changes in strategy have already occurred in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, where after years of defeats at the polls, some Catholics were elected.
What is more, "The Catholic Church, in particular parishes and their members, must be more open-minded,” the archbishop said. They must “understand that politics is not a 'dirty' word as many Indonesians tend to think. It can be a tool to affect the political system and lead to actions that promote the common good."
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