Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Demands to implement sharia by a number of Muslim circles should not refer to the implementation of Islamic law, but instead focus on moral enhancement, People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nurwahid said in Bandung on Wednesday.
Hidayat, former chairman of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the Koran did not refer to sharia in matters pertaining to law. But many regard the term as generally referring to the strict enforcement of Islamic law.
"If we refer to the Koran to find its true meaning, it refers to morals and not law. But we implicate it is related to legal matters following the presence of a sharia school," said Hidayat in his keynote speech during the National PKS working committee meeting in Lembang, Bandung.
The unclear definition of sharia, which has resulted in public anxiety, implied negative things and represented Islam as being discriminatory against the minority, he said.
"What the public conceives of sharia eventually, are eerie things like punishments in the form of lashing and the severing of hands in public, and closures of houses of worship," said Hidayat.
Hidayat said "sharia" referred to moral improvement, although he added that those who disapproved of sharia were often involved in corrupt practices.
He cited as an example the case in which two PKS faction members in the West Java Legislative Council returned Rp 500 million (approximately US$55,550) in cash rewards, derived from the provincial budget, but had received protests from legislators who often criticized sharia. "Those who like to talk about sharia in fact did not return the cash rewards," said Hidayat.
He said that in reality, the sharia concept should embody the existing plurality in the country, in which Islam can be represented as a religion that brings solutions, passion and mercy for all, and that Muslims in Indonesia should be more supportive of all existing denominations.
"In Aceh for example, I heard that Central, West and North Aceh have arrested gamblers until their prisons are chock-full and that they are keen to uphold the sharia. But, if we look at the inside, corruption still exists," said Hidayat.
Hidayat said a mutual compromise between Muslim-based parties was required to redefine the essence of sharia, such as through a Muslim congress. "However, it would definitely take time. We should start applying sharia by promoting morality in our daily lives right away, before a definition is available," he added.
Separately, PKS chairman Tifatul Sembiring said his party would garner support from secular nationalist parties to win the 2009 election.
He estimated that the greatest potential number of voters were from such parties, after referring to the PKS national congress in 2005 in which it was realized that voters from "radical" Islamic parties accounted for only 20 percent of the votes obtained. "Most of the parties that fared well during the 2004 election were nationalist parties, such as Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the Democrat Party," said Tifatul.
He said garnering votes from secular nationalist parties was not against his party's philosophy because during the Prophet Muhammad's period, the Madinah pact recognized plurality and people mutually respected each other. "We are a nationalistic party that is religious," said Tifatul.