FKUB: between bureaucracy and a creative spirituality of elections

FKUB or Forum Komunikasi Umat Beragama is created by Indonesian law in 2006 as a body of local religious leaders that must give advice for inter-religious harmony. In 1980 Minister of Religion Alamsyah Ratu Perwiramegara already created a National Body for Consultation of the Religious Communities (Wadah Musyawarah Antarumat Beragama), but after 1990 we did not hear much of its initiatives (after more than 500 pamphlets and books were published as reports of meetings in one decade, anyway!).
The FKUB must be created on the level of provinces, kabupaten and kecamatan: until the small towns and at sub-district level.
I am now writing on ecumenical circuits and networks, in preparation for an international conference in Hong Kong, 13-14 April this year, and so I take also in consideration the inter-religious circuits as the macro-ecumenism, against the internal Christian networks as micro-ecumenism. However, most reports support the idea of FKUB in a general and idealistic way, but not many of its concrete initiatives are shown: in many places it is not (yet) really functioning. The Ahmadiyyah problems of 2008 and later were not solved by FKUB because they are not seen as an inter-religious, but internal Muslim conflict.

Now there was a special news about an initiative of FKUB in Papua. From noon Thursday 11 January 2018 until sunset the following day, leaders of the major religions joined a new style of fasting as preparation for a peaceful election of local administrators (pilkada aman damai). President of the FKUB Papuya is the Roman Catholic priest Linyus Biniluk. Buddhists, Muslims, Protestants and Catholics joined this Assisi-style prayer and fasting. There are pictures of a meeting in a universal style of hotel, people sitting like common bureaucrats, but this Papua dancing is specific for the event. May peace be supported during the coming period! May God bless the people of Papua, especially while praying and performing new rituals in this way!