Fighting the NII With Pancasila

Malang, East Java. Nur Fadli Akbar, a 14-year-old pesantren student in East Java, calmly listed the five principles of Indonesia’s state ideology, Pancasila.

The student at Al-Munawwaroh Kedungkandang Islamic boarding school then added, “We are not allowed to commit adultery, to lie, to speak roughly to our friends or hurt them. If we commit these violations, we will be punished.”

At a time of rising concern that the extremist Indonesian Islamic State (NII) movement is making inroads in the country’s boarding schools and universities, pesantren officials in East Java are confident their students are safe because of the schools’ focus on Pancasila and good morals.

Lookh Makhfudz, who runs Al-Munawwaroh in Malang, said that whether the schools were under Nahdlatul Ulama or Muhammadiyah — the two largest Islamic organizations in the country — they taught the values of Pancasila, with its emphasis on pluralism.

Lookh said Pancasia might have disappeared from the curriculums of public schools, but it was still a big part of boarding schools affiliated with Muhammadiyah and NU.

The roots of the NII stretch back to the 1940s, when the Islamist militia known as Darul Islam, led by Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwiryo, fought for the establishment of an Islamic state. Kartosuwiryo was captured and executed in 1962, but his teachings live on across the archipelago.

The NII has lately been suspected of infiltrating universities, mosques and even politics in its attempt to recruit members and work toward its goal of an Islamic state.

“All the owners and operators of Islamic boarding schools in East Java, whether they are under the NU or Muhammadiyah, are certain that the NII and its teachings will never enter our schools. We uphold and live by Pancasila and Unity in Diversity,” Lookh told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend.

]“All of us principals of Islamic boarding schools, whether NU or Muhammadiyah, agree on one thing — we do not consider the NII as part of Islam. The teachings of the NII need to be rejected,” he added.

Lookh said that like most pesantren officials across Java, he was aware of the presence of the NII and how the movement operated. In 2004, he said he was visited by a Malang resident who claimed to be a top official of the NII.

“He came for help. He wanted badly to be rehabilitated from the ways of the NII, which he believed was tearing his family apart,” said Lookh, who is also a Malang councilor.

He said other former NII members had come to him and told him that members were encouraged to lie to and extort money from their parents, since they were not part of the movement.

“NII members are made to believe that it is not wrong to steal from your parents because it is the duty of parents to provide their children with money, and the duty of NII members to make daily donations to the NII for its movement. This teaching, clearly, is not part of Islam, and will never make its way into our boarding schools,” Lookh said, adding that his boarding school was under Muhammadiyah.

“My boarding school has 200 students. I can assure you that our students are equipped with strong cultural studies to fight off such bad influences.

“We practice Pancasila in our daily lives. In our code of conduct, in politeness, in being democratic. All Indonesians must know the five principles of Pancasila and practice them in their daily lives.”

The five principals of the state ideology are faith in God, just humanity, the unity of Indonesia, social justice and the people’s democracy.

“If religious leaders across the nation understand the teachings of the NII, there is no way they will allow the NII into their boarding schools,” Lookh said. “The NII is not Islam, because Islam does not teach you to lie or steal.”

Yatimul Ainun heads Al-Hikmah Lil Muttaqin boarding school in Malang.

He said the 1,000 students at his pesantren, which is under the NU, received a solid grounding in human relations, the need to be good citizens, humans’ relationship with nature and the principles of Pancasila.

“These teachings make up 25 percent of our curriculum outside of the normal subjects at our schools,” Yatimul said. “Islam does not allow people to lie to their parents, and certainly not to cause them so much pain. To deny or defy your parents is strictly forbidden in Islam’s tenets. We all reject the teachings of the NII.”

( the JG)