By Benny YP Siahaan[1]
Photo credit: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/29/intolerance-%E2%80%98-rise%E2%80%99-among-muslims.html
It is a bit odd reading on national media recently that the news on President SBY’s visit to New York was overshadowed with the news that heaccepted the World Statesman Award from the Appeal of Conscience (ACF) rather than focusing on the main issue, that is to submit the report of the High Level Panel of Post Millennium Development Goals. This should not be construed that the issues and objections that were brought by the civil society on the merit of accepting the World Statesman award for promoting religious tolerance have no ground, but it is also important to put the issue on proportion.
New York, 30 May 2013
The main reason President SBY went to New York is to chair the last meeting of the United Nations High Level Panel on Post-2015 Development together with leaders of the UK and Sierra Leone, and to present the report to the UN Secretary General on their work of the last year. As a sideline, the President will receive the award from ACF, a Jewish interfaith organization presided by Rabbi Arthur Schneier.
Schneier founded the Appeal of Conscience Foundation in 1965 and has served as its president since then. From there he develops a reputation as a prominent interfaith dialogue leader in the US, particularly after 9/11. He is also the spiritual leader of the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, a modern Jewish Orthodox congregation for more than forty years. His congregation was visited by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, the first time ever a Catholic Pope visited a synagogue in the US.
Former recipients of this award come from world leader. Among them are Stephen Harper the Prime Minister of Canada, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Gordon Brown of UK, President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea.
In fact, the conferment of the accolade to the Indonesian President has never been a big issue in the United States. But Schneier’s decision to give the award to President Yudhoyono has been the subject of discourse and protest at home. While during the presentation at the fancy Pierre hotel in famous Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, there was a report that there would be a demonstration to reject the awardhby NGO called East Timor Network (ETAN) consist of not more than 30 people.
On the other hand, this bestowment might remind us also about the criticism of Schneir’s son, Rabbi Marc Schneier, who is also an interfaith campaigner, when he applauded Bahrain as a role model in the Arab world for coexistence and tolerance of different faith communities on his visit to the country in January 2012. At the time there was a series of unrest due to the protest from the Syiah community there because of the alleged discrimination treatment by the Sunni majority.
Those who defend Schneier argue that to bestow this award will in turn push the improvement of the alleged worsening religious tolerance in Indonesia. Some said, however, that it would be too late since next year President Yudhoyono will finish his term. Even so, there is a concern that this award may give him a brush to his legacy in his exit in 2014.
While others who support Yudhoyono’s acceptance of the award, including Marzuki Darusman a politician-cum-human rights activist and the current UN Special Rapporteur for human rights situation in North Korea, argue that every bestowment of an award to a politician mostly generates pros and cons even to President Obama when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
Apart from those pros and cons, let us take a look for a while on the very definition of an award that usually bears meaning of an acknowledgement or recognition to a person or a group of people to acknowledge or recognize their excellence or great achievements in a certain field.
Hence, let us put the issue back to President Yudhoyono to judge from his conscience and deepest heart as towhether he is entitled to the award or whether the issue of religious intolerance were truly upheld during his presidency or whether there is no ambiguity in addressing the problems when they occur.
In summary, let us focus on the main aim of President President SBY to New York that is to give recommendations to the world’s body on how world’s development agenda for the next decades are set.
On the other hand, people will surely remember his judgment and decision, good or bad, to accept the World Statesman award and its real impact to the promotion of religious tolerance in the country after the conferment.
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