Jakarta, NU Online
General Chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) KH. Said Aqil Siroj has conveyed his criticism of weak democratic system in Indonesia, saying that religion could be a solution to improve it.

On the sidelines of a seminar held by the the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) on Tuesday (13/13), Siroj said that religion fully littered with moral teachings could address the need of democracy.

"Religion has two important things, it builds morality and has examples. In Islam there is Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), in Christianity there is Jesus and in other faiths there must be other xamples," Siroj said.

He added that the presence of the prophets was very important for being examples for their community and "could inspire us to improve our democracy which is still weak.

Siroj said that democracy was a rational choice, but not ideal because there has still been Western liberalism which denies the role of religion.

"Everyone knows and recognizes that our democratic system is still poor. I can not imagine if there were no religion in it," Siroj said.

He asserted that Muslims themselves, especially Nahdliyin (NU followers) will remain committed to upholding Pancasila as the State ideology. "Yet Islam teaches us how Prophet Muhammad should be example in life, not least in a democracy." (enh)