The Jakarta Post,
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono said on Sunday that there was no contradiction between Islam and democracy and Indonesia was a living proof that the two entities could go hand in hand.
“I reject the position that Democracy could not live alongside Islam,” Yudhoyono said in his keynote speech in the fourth World Peace Forum (WPC) held at the Bogor Palace on Sunday.
Yudhoyono said that Indonesia could serve as a shining example to the world that the country with the largest Muslim population could practice democracy and continue to thrive.
Yudhoyono went further to assert that Indonesia is also an examples of how to reconcile democracy and economic growth.
“Indonesia is a democratic country with the largest Muslim population and has a stable economic performance,” Yudhoyono said as quoted by Antara news wire.
Yudhoyono, however, said that there should not be one single democratic model that should serve as a blueprint for all countries in the world.
He warned that democracy could not be parachuted down from above by other countries.
“We cannot implant democracy anywhere in the world and it to work immediately. There are always local values to democracy’s universal values, be they religion, ethnicity or other identity,” Yudhoyono said.
Agreed. The President just has to show that in a democracy – whether an Islamic one or not – minorities are respected and protected. Democracy as a dictatorship of the majority looses its value.