Padang - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono praised the leadership of Muhammad Natsir, a national hero and top moslem intellectual just because of his concepts and thoughts that could be actualized to face the current global challenges.
Talking about M. Natsir, many things could be taken as a lesson from him, the president said in his speech when awarding a national hero title to the late M. Natsir here on Saturday evening.
According to the head of state, M. Natsir deserved to get a national hero title because many of his thoughts on development of the Republic of Indonesia‘s unity.
The thoughts focussed more on rejection of the colonialistic practices, as the nations in the world were friends to each other. He was an anti colonialist during which at that time many countries in Asia and Africa were being colonialized, but he had already proclaimed himself as an anti colonialist.
His thoughts ran in tandem with Indonesia‘s foreign politics which was upholding a free and active stance in fostering friendship with all nations in the world under a mutually respectable sovereignty program.
Furthermore, the thoughts on integral motion was of the significance to the unity of Indonesia.
The head of state further stated that the future challenges would stand ahead of us, and therefore cohesion and unity to overcome the challenges were badly needed.
In addition, M. Natsir was a top religious leader of Islam who was committed to applying Islamic values which often brought peace to all human beings by adhering to religious tenets.
"Therefore we hope that in the future there will be other Natsir to appear in this nation," Yudhoyono said.
The president said the younger generation was expected to know more about M. Natsir throught the history and his thoughts that could be made as a guide in life.
Source:
http://www.antaranews.com (December 14, 2008)