Democracy in RI, Tunisia can serve as example for West on Islam

Jakarta, NU Online
The democracy practiced in Indonesia and Tunisia can serve as an example for the West in understanding Islam, thus helping them prevent seeing at Islam from a negative and misleading perception.

The West often looks at  Islam as a constraint in the democratization process in predominantly moslem countries. The presence of Indonesia and Tunisia in reviving democratization will cause doubts in the West, Tunisian Ambassador to Indonesia Faysal Gouia told Antara in an interview at his office on Wednesday.<>

Indonesia with a population of 220 million, 90 percent of whom are moslems, managed to emerge as the third most democratic country in the world.

A similar success in democratization was also achieved by Tunisia, also  as a populous moslem country, he added.

So far, the West tends to look at Islam from  a narrow-minded point of view. Their perception on Islam is always linked to fanatism, inability to accept  western concepts, difficulty in making reforms, and more saddening is that Islam is even often associated to terrorism.

All kinds of negative perceptions are of course unfavorable to the Islamic world, as they are easily cornered by the West with their groundless accusations against Islam.  

The emergence of democratization in predominantly moslem countries like Indonesia and Tunisia, will steadly  cause the West’s bad image on Islam to fade away, which means that that Islam is no longer seen as a stumbling block to the process of democratization in the Moslem countries.

It is true that the big challenges and constraints will be faced  in upholding and implementing democratization. Most developed countries had in the past also faced such obstacles in their efforts at upholding democratization.   

Touching on the political relations between the two countries, Faysal said that it had lasted for three decades and there had been  no  ups and downs in these relations.

As reported by Antara news agency, the fact is actually the other way around, namely similarities in dealing with international issues between Indonesia and Tunisia in the international fora.

As to the Iraq problem, Tunisia’s views and stance are similar to  Indonesia’s,  which were once expressed to American President George W. Bush in Bogor during his visit to Indonesia last year. (dar)