Gus Dur Asks Muslims To Fight Corruption Of The New Order Government In History Today, June 17, 1978

Gus Dur and former President Suharto. (nu.or.id)

JAKARTA History today, 45 years ago, April 17, 1978, Muslim scholar Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) wrote his criticism of Muslims in the column of Tempo Magazine. Gus Dur asked Muslims not to be indifferent to the corruption committed by New Order (Orba) officials.

Muslims must unite against it. Previously, corruption in the New Order era was perpetuated massively. Corruption has infected all levels. From superiors to subordinates. This condition makes most of the Indonesian people not prosperous.

The life behavior of New Order-era officials often comes into contact with corruption. efforts to enrich oneself with the path of corruption have become commonplace. All this happened because corruption had penetrated all levels. From superiors to subordinates.

There are also various kinds of corruption studies. Exchange of goods, exchange of authority, double administration, buying and selling positions, to bureaucratic rhetoric. They perpetuate corruption because the opportunity is wide open. Moreover, the government does not care about activities that harm the state.

High-end officials only ask their subordinates to be honest. The appeal, nothing more. The problem arose when the top-class official did not set an example of how to live an honest life. As a result, the appeal fell apart. Even the narrative was echoed by President Suharto.

Everything changed when Suharto actually gave his family to hold various strategic government businesses. This example then made corruption rampant. Even though there was action, Suharto was only busy to continue improving the government's image.

Law enforcement against corruptors is completely invisible. Officials are only asked not to be luxurious. The result is that corruption is increasingly mushrooming. In fact, if you want, Suharto has great authority to regulate all kinds of things. Nothing is impossible for him.

Various corruption cases are camouflaged with the Ges method: exchange of goods, exchange of authority, double administration, bureaucratic rhetoric, without being caught. And it turns out that the order after reform is no less than the New Order than the Old Order. The theft of forest wood in a district in Central Java increased 300 percent after the New Order. New Order is a period of monopoly of theft.

'Reformation is a decentralization of corruption. In the New Order era the devil was clear, after the devil was dressed as an angel. Big companies in the New Order era had to give tribute, the account number was clear to be sent every month," explained Emha Ainun Nadjib (Cak Nun) in the book Boxing Climbing Pak Kiai (2008).

The condition of Indonesia in the midst of the proliferation of corruption made Gus Dur furious. The cleric and activist asked Muslims to immediately fight the corrupt behavior of the New Order rulers. He even wrote columns in Tempo Magazine specifically to open up the sensitivity of Muslims on June 17, 1978.

The column is entitled Morality: Integrity & Involvement. In his writing, Gus Dur appealed to Muslims not to be indifferent to corrupt behavior of officials. If corruption is allowed to continue, the poor will run fast. Officials get the money, while the people only splash the government's promises.

To improve the imbalance above, you must be able and dare to make corrections to the morality they have lived in so far. They must not be indifferent to the severe damage caused in their attitude and view of life by existing dual morality.

"Allowing massive corruption to be carried out by keeping yourself busy with insults will only mean allowing the process of increasing the nation's impoverishment. The attitude of pretending not to know anything about efforts to uphold human rights, to be enough to relax with religious manifestations that are merely outward, does not other than only mean the delay in the process of equitable prosperity," explained Gus Dur in his column.