VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) KH Muhyiddin Junaid (left) handed a souvenir to Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi at the closing of the 7th KUII in Pangkalpinang, Friday night (Feb 28, 2020) (ANTARA)

Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung - The 7th Indonesian Muslim Congress (KUII) has urged President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to dissolve the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP) on the grounds it is no longer needed.

"We urge the president to return the interpretation of Pancasila to MPR (the People's Consultative Assembly) as mandated by the fourth tenet of Pancasila," Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) KH Muhyiddin Junaidi said at the closing of the congress in Pangkalpinang, on Friday night.

"All participants of the 7th KUII this year comprising various components of Islamic society in Indonesia, leaders (of regional branches) of Indonesian Ulemas Council .from all over Indonesia, leaders of Islamic mass organizations, leaders of Islamic Student and Youth Organizations (OKP), chiefs of Islamic boarding schools and Islamic schools, chiefs of Islamic institutes of higher learning, business world, Islamic philanthropic institutions, media, government officials, political parties and other Islamic figures have agreed to urge the president to dissolve BPIP," he said.

The congress, opened by Vice President Ma'ruf Amin on Wednesday (Feb 26) also encouraged the government to familiarize the public with the linkage between Pancasila and religions and to help strengthen religious values in Pancasila.

"We encourage the government to help strengthen religious values in Pancasila to get rid of slander that legislation containing religious values is not Pancasilaist," he said.

In addition, KUII also urged the government to uphold the law as fairly as possible without discriminating against mega corruption and hate speech cases. The government should also adopt a non-discriminative and digital-based state apparatus recruitment system that can be accessed by the entire Indonesian nation to create transparent process by involving public surveillance.

"We urge the government to protect Indonesian citizens from dangerous virus such as corona," he said. (ANTARA)