DDHK News, England - The Indonesian Islamic Organization in the UK held an online dialogue with the theme "The 2014 Election as a moment to build synergy and increase the role of the Islamic ummah in determining the nation's future".
The dialogue that was held last weekend by the Indonesian Islamic Family in Great Britain (KIBAR) in the Skype teleconference room with the kibar.uk account, London, was attended by a number of representatives of major Indonesian Islamic organizations in England.
They include Nahdlatul Ulama-UK, Muhammadiyah-UK, the Indonesian Muslim Scholars Association (ICMI) -UK, as well as the UK Prosperous Justice Party Information and Service Center (PIP PKS UK).
The dialogue was hosted by Dr. Syahrul Hidayat, an academic at the University of Exeter, according to KIBAR administrator Rahmat Sifaurahman in his statement to Antara London, Monday.
He said the dialogue using Skype technology facilities and Internet radio was followed by people throughout the UK and was relaxed and full of brotherhood.
In the dialogue of the Chairman of Muhammadiyah-UK, Hilali Basya started the conversation by explaining the phenomenon of voters who are mostly pragmatic. They have a simple hope of wanting a safe, comfortable and prosperous life, said the doctoral candidate at the University of Leeds.
The tendency of Islamic organizations to use sectarian issues as an appeal to vote for an Islamic party has proved less successful in lifting the votes of Islamic parties in general elections.
According to Hilali Basya, what is needed is a discussion in an open public space when discussing social issues that are not only seen from a religious perspective.
Meanwhile, Ganjar Widhiyoga, a doctoral candidate at Durham University, said that people will leave political parties because they cannot channel their aspirations other than because of the lack of political education in society.
Political pragmatism begins with the absence of political intelligence in society and leads to the emergence of a political elite that is only built by the power of money.
Naturally, the public will protest by not casting their votes as an effort to criticize the political party system and performance.
The symptom of increasing public pragmatism in elections was also confirmed by Dr. Hadi Susanto. Hadi, who revealed the fact that there was one area where the winner of the village head election was a former pimp and criminal who promised security for the village community.
According to him, this shows that people tend not to care about the background of the village leader, said the Mathematics lecturer at Essex University, Colchester.
In another part, a lawsuit against the Islamic party was also filed by Nizma Agustjik, a social activist who is also a representative of ICMI UK, saying that many candidates change to Islam during the election and only highlight their respective egos.
According to Nizma Agustjik, currently most of the Islamic parties do not clearly show their Islam and are only active when there is an election except the Prosperous Justice Party.
"The Islamic parties should be able to unite, cooperate and work together to represent Indonesian Muslims, at least sit together," he said.
Responding to this, Hendri Lucky who represented PKS revealed that efforts to unite have been made since the beginning.
He said that since the beginning, PKS always invited the components of the ummah to unite. However, unfortunately until now it has not been realized, said the Head of PIP PKS UK added.
At the end of the event Dr. Syahrul Hidayat concluded that the election is a milestone which does not need to be a source of division for Muslims, but instead can unite the ummah so that they can work together. (AMONG).*
