TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP), Yudian Wahyudi, addressed the recent controversy about "religion against Pancasila", defending that people have wrongly interpreted his statement.

According to Yudian, the enemy of Pancasila are people with extremist thoughts that politicize religion and consider themselves as a majority.

“Religion is reduced to the tiny point that fits their agenda and close-off others. Now these groups, in reality, are the minorities who claim to be majorities,” said Yudian to Tempo on Thursday, February 13.

He said Pancasila (five national ideologies) is the highest consensus in living as a country’s citizen. Meanwhile, religious followers, especially Muslims, must accept the reality that God’s highest law overseas social life and politics, which is not the Holy book.

“So for Islam, it is not the Holy Quran and hadith, but consensus or ijma,” said Yudian.

He pointed out an example of the conflicting opinions on Ziyarat or pilgrimage between Indonesia’s two largest Islamic organizations; Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah.

Both organizations have different interpretations regarding pilgrimage and need a middleman in the form of consensus.

“This is what I mean about consensus,” said Yudian.

FRISKI RIANA