Muhaimin Iskandar Calls East Nusa Tenggara As An Example Of A Province With A Symbol Of Diversity And Unity

Vice Chairman of the House of Representatives for Korkesra Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar (left) (BETWEEN)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian House of Representatives for the Coordination of People's Welfare, Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar, said that East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is an example of a province in Indonesia that highly values diversity and is a symbol of unity.

"I am really very happy that the brothers in NTT continue to build kinship, togetherness for the realization of mutual prosperity. Hopefully, we will continue to be consistent in contributing to maintaining unity in NTT," said Muhaimin in a written statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, December 7.

Muhaimin attended a national dialogue entitled 'The Role of Religion and Legislature in Building Character and National Welfare' which was held in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, NTT, last Sunday, December 5.

According to him, in the 10 years of reform, the maturation and strengthening of a more inclusive and pluralist perspective on nationalism has grown well.

Moderation of religious life in a participatory manner also continues to grow. He said interreligious dialogue and togetherness in religious awareness would be better.

"This is very good because if Gus Dur states that the deeper the knowledge of religion he has, the more tolerant he is. The shallower a person's religion is, the more intolerant he is," Gus Muhaimin is familiarly called.

On the other hand, he said, since the 1998 reform era, there has been an extraordinary dynamic of freedom where people can express ideas, ideas and ideologies very freely. Therefore, in the first 15 years of reformation, all the circumstances were revealed very clearly, especially on social media.

"You can see radicals, you can see fundamentalists, you can see terrorists. In the early 10 years of reformation, the peak was in the 2000s, the production of religious-based violence campaign teachings was massive," he said.

According to him, Indonesia is very open to making all teachings easy to enter and develop so that overcoming various problems that exist, all children of the nation must continue to show and care for diversity.

"And NTT is an example of the symbols of unity from diversity," said Gus Muhaimin.

In addition, he said, the nation's development is currently experiencing serious challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and almost all countries in the world are experiencing the same problem. He was grateful that now the situation is getting better.

He said religion and the legislature have a very important role in building the character and welfare of the nation because the nation's problems are currently so complex.

There are at least three national problems that must be a serious concern, namely poverty, the quality of human resources (HR), and the development of national economic strength.

"These three things are the focus of our state budget (APBN) activities. This issue has not been resolved, now we have added a pandemic. As a result, the APBN allocation has been refocused and reduced," he said.

Nevertheless, Gus Muhaimin said that in general economic growth is still quite good, although the State Budget cannot be the sole buffer for economic growth.

"A large number of our population turns out to be useful because there is an economic cycle from daily consumption needs. On the other hand, our State Budget has quite good budget revenues when the industrial and business climate is good. Due to the pandemic, the amount of budget that comes from tax revenues has decreased significantly," he said.

Therefore, he said, the House of Representatives (DPR) gave full discretion to the executive to really deal with the pandemic situation as well as possible.

"The government is given flexibility. None of the government's requests have failed in the DPR. All political parties, including the National Awakening Party (PKB) provide great flexibility. This is to oversee national development so that the government runs more effectively," said Gus Muhaimin.