News

Bandung Religious, Veronica: We Are All Embraced Without Discrimination

The Bandung City Government (Pemkot) held a prayer together at the Bandung City Hall to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of the Mayor of Bandung, Oded M. Danial.

Din Wednesday, 19 January 2022 02:45
img
img
img
img
img
img
Siaran Pers Diskominfo Kota Bandung 18 Januari 2022

Exactly on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, it's been 40 days since the Mayor of Bandung, Oded M. Danial left us all. To commemorate and pray for his passing, the Bandung City Government (Pemkot) held a prayer together at the Bandung City Hall.

The family of the late Mang Oded (as Oded M. Danial is known), the Regional Secretary, Ema Sumarna, and a number of religious figures were present at this joint prayer.

Mang Oded has carved many good memories during his tenure as Mayor of Bandung. Including the legacy of good programs that are now being continued by Plt. Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana.

In this activity, Yana requested that all Bandung residents continue to pray for Mang Oded and together realize dreams and promises that have not been realized.

“God willing, I and all levels of the Bandung City Government will always continue the dream of the deceased to create a Bandung that is superior, comfortable, prosperous, and religious. Mang Oded has left many good things for us and the city of Bandung. Let's pray for the deceased together. May the deceased be accepted by Allah," said Yana at the opening of this joint prayer.

On this occasion, Mang Oded's wife, Siti Muntamah expressed her gratitude to all the people of Bandung who had joined and prayed for Mang Oded.

Even though Mang Oded is no longer with the residents of Bandung, Siti said the support from the Mang Oded family to build Bandung will always be with them.

"We as a family will still work with the community to build Bandung. We also take this opportunity to say goodbye to leave the pavilion and return to our love house," said Umi, her nickname.

The loss of Mang Oded's departure is not only felt by the Bandung City Government and his family, but also all levels of society, even other religious leaders. Like Veronica Yeni Yosef, a representative of the Caring Chinese Community who expressed her sense of loss with the departure of Mang Oded.

"He wants to build Bandung as a religious city. And it's not only Islam, but all religions he embraces. It doesn't discriminate. Incidentally, my religion is Catholic. And we all feel lost, especially the Caring Chinese Community, "said Veronica while holding back tears.

Not only from a Catholic figure, the builder of the Tanda Bhakti Vihara, Tan Tjong Boe also stated the same thing about the concept of Bandung Religious which was dreamed of by Mang Oded.

“What people fear about Bandung Religious is only for a group of people, it's not. Not like that at all. It turns out that he embraces all levels of society and all religious adherents to create a religious Bandung,” he said.

This view was created from the results of the power of friendship, according to Karim Suryadi, Professor of Political Communication at the Indonesian Education University. According to Karim, Mang Oded was a leader who brought Islam into the spirit of the bureaucracy.

“And this is the impact of the communication pattern he brings. Making friendship as a political moral anchor, as well as a solution in solving problems. He interprets politics as a tool to realize the common good," explained Karim.

Besides Bandung Religious, there are also many other good programs that Mang Oded inherited. One of them is Hurry SAE and Kang Pisman.

According to the Lecturer of the Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, Padjadjaran University, Syaeful Rahman Soenaria, Kang Pisman and Buruan SAE became the superior and original program of the late Mang Oded.

“Three years he has been mayor, he has more than 200 awards, but he rarely shows it to the public. Among them are Hurry SAE and Kang Pisman. He saw that community involvement, starting from the smallest unit, namely the family, should be a trigger for local economic growth which, when drawn to the region, has a strategic effect for the city of Bandung, "said Syaeful.

To conclude this event, the Chairman of the MUI for the City of Bandung, Miftah Faridl reminded the residents of Bandung to continue to pray for Mang Oded, and to take lessons from the incident of his death.

"What we think of as a disaster, turns out to be a condition with wisdom. He died beautifully. I think all of us will be jealous of how he died in a state of dhikr, at the end of a prayer, on Friday, when he was going to give the sermon. Complete all of that. Allah is the Greatest. I believe he is a person who accepts husnul khotimah," he concluded. (din)**