I guess recently the cultists (sometimes referred to as ‘the religious’) in Indonesia are scratching their heads trying to understand the reason for the country’s recent calamities. A prayer session was undertaken in February by a number of the top echelon of cult leaders after the train derailment in central Java that killed five people and injured hundreds that closely followed the crash of Adam Air Flight 574 in Sulawesi and the burning of the Senopati Nusantara ferry in the Java sea that left the country with a combined death toll in the hundreds. The local cult (religious) leaders who held the large joint prayer meeting were apparently asking god to bring safety and relief to Indonesia.
Since the initial prayers there has been the sinking of the already damaged ferry on February 25th while investigators and news people were on board thus losing another 4 lives. There has also been a massive landslide that killed at least 34 in Cibal district, East Nusa Tenggara, Flores Island on March 3rd and a second air crash with 21 killed in Yogyakarta on March 7th. Hence my question; does god really sit about listening to the prayers of the ineffectual and the top ‘god botherers’ of the country?
Then of course we get this…
“Leaders join prayer for RI safety” (Again?) - Saturday, March 10, 2007- M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta. “…the country's leaders sought assistance from on high Friday by joining a mass prayer at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and almost all the ministers from the United Indonesia Cabinet joined with thousands of Muslims to take part in a group prayer (dzikir) held after the Friday prayer. The seemingly ordinary Friday prayer took on new meaning, especially after the director general for Islamic and haj affairs at the Religious Affairs Ministry, Nasaruddin Umar, focused his sermon on natural disasters and other calamities.”
Then on the following Friday we get this ‘The Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni…’ “has called on the public, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to organize a mass prayer every Friday at least three times a month to mark the nation's repentance, self-introspection and reconciliation with God.” He is then quoted as saying… "If we have not been behaving appropriately, we should start to behave better."
Another Post journalist Mohammad Yazid also on Friday, March 16, 2007 gets a bit closer to the mark by saying; (abridged) “many accidents [have] occurred in Indonesia... [that] could have been prevented if compliance with the regulations on passengers' safety were heeded and the government's control over the roadworthiness, seaworthiness and airworthiness of modes of transportation had been effective.”
So this leads us to the sinister aspects of all these ‘prayer-happy politicians’ being reported at the central (rather than their own) houses of worship. As it happens coincidentally and in normal Indonesian style no government minister has resigned as a result of their ineffective governance, nor for what perhaps may be even seen as a worse case of gross negligence. Why? Because it’s not the government’s or its minister’s fault it’s a clear case of… “inshala” or “god’s will”. Worse still it’s actually the mass population’s fault (us) because we as the Minister for religious affairs puts it “we need to reconcile with God” and “behave properly”.
What a crass crock of crap this is. The government is inept and ministers charged with overseeing what has been proven to be a faulty transport system should resign.
What is particularly annoying about all this is that any emotionally intelligent individual should be able to see that the prayers are a total waste of time and that they won’t solve the problems of any lousy administration. What really irks me personally is that the politicians walk away unscathed for their irresponsible inept behaviour and then in collusion with the high priests of hypocrisy try to shift responsibility onto the general population by selling them on the idea that they are not ‘good’ enough in god’s eyes and deserve this crap.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time etc”
Since the initial prayers there has been the sinking of the already damaged ferry on February 25th while investigators and news people were on board thus losing another 4 lives. There has also been a massive landslide that killed at least 34 in Cibal district, East Nusa Tenggara, Flores Island on March 3rd and a second air crash with 21 killed in Yogyakarta on March 7th. Hence my question; does god really sit about listening to the prayers of the ineffectual and the top ‘god botherers’ of the country?
Then of course we get this…
“Leaders join prayer for RI safety” (Again?) - Saturday, March 10, 2007- M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta. “…the country's leaders sought assistance from on high Friday by joining a mass prayer at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and almost all the ministers from the United Indonesia Cabinet joined with thousands of Muslims to take part in a group prayer (dzikir) held after the Friday prayer. The seemingly ordinary Friday prayer took on new meaning, especially after the director general for Islamic and haj affairs at the Religious Affairs Ministry, Nasaruddin Umar, focused his sermon on natural disasters and other calamities.”
Then on the following Friday we get this ‘The Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni…’ “has called on the public, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to organize a mass prayer every Friday at least three times a month to mark the nation's repentance, self-introspection and reconciliation with God.” He is then quoted as saying… "If we have not been behaving appropriately, we should start to behave better."
Another Post journalist Mohammad Yazid also on Friday, March 16, 2007 gets a bit closer to the mark by saying; (abridged) “many accidents [have] occurred in Indonesia... [that] could have been prevented if compliance with the regulations on passengers' safety were heeded and the government's control over the roadworthiness, seaworthiness and airworthiness of modes of transportation had been effective.”
So this leads us to the sinister aspects of all these ‘prayer-happy politicians’ being reported at the central (rather than their own) houses of worship. As it happens coincidentally and in normal Indonesian style no government minister has resigned as a result of their ineffective governance, nor for what perhaps may be even seen as a worse case of gross negligence. Why? Because it’s not the government’s or its minister’s fault it’s a clear case of… “inshala” or “god’s will”. Worse still it’s actually the mass population’s fault (us) because we as the Minister for religious affairs puts it “we need to reconcile with God” and “behave properly”.
What a crass crock of crap this is. The government is inept and ministers charged with overseeing what has been proven to be a faulty transport system should resign.
What is particularly annoying about all this is that any emotionally intelligent individual should be able to see that the prayers are a total waste of time and that they won’t solve the problems of any lousy administration. What really irks me personally is that the politicians walk away unscathed for their irresponsible inept behaviour and then in collusion with the high priests of hypocrisy try to shift responsibility onto the general population by selling them on the idea that they are not ‘good’ enough in god’s eyes and deserve this crap.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time etc”
www.caliibre.com
Refs:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/ArchivesDet2.asp?FileID=20070310.@02
http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/ArchivesDet2.asp?FileID=20070316.E02
