Falun Gong

I would Like to refer to the recent article in The Jakarta Post on May 8, 2001, regarding Falun Gong, as well as what Dr. I. Wibowo of the China Study Center wrote about Falun Gong in Kontan tabloid of March 19, 2001.

Dr. I. Wibowo quoted an unofficial source as saying that the Falun Gong membership reached 100 million, exceeding the China communist party membership of 55 million.

In order not to have his China Study Center misunderstood and labeled as China bashing or as spreading misinformation, I would advise Dr. I. Wibowo to read more newspapers and books. It is also advisable that Dr. I. Wibowo, being a Jesuit, read more books by Voltaire (1694-1778), another Jesuit, especially the treatise on toleration and other essays, and Voltaire`s Philosophical Dictionary, as well as books about China`s tolerance toward religion, Western cult, intolerance, superstition and religious fighting.

The Asian Wall Street Journal of March 28, 2001, estimated that those who practiced Falun Gong (not members) as between two million to several dozen million at its peak, but most have recanted.

Regarding the practice of Falun Gong, Mr. Erik Eckholm wrote on Jan. 31, 2001, in the International Herald Tribune that Falun Gong combines elements of Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese theories of Qi, or cosmic energy forces. And in Mr. Li HongZi's rendition, those who practice the right exercises activate an invisible wheel in the abdomen that sucks in good energy and expels bad forces, improving health and happiness. Those in advanced stages of practice may experience supernatural effects like flying or being in two places at once.

We could read here that nowhere are the most important elements of Buddhism and Taoism found, such as the enlightenment and Taichi-Ying/Yang theories, nor is there any discipline related to Qiqong. Also, it is not a normal calisthenics exercise.

One could not help but conclude that it is leading, potentially and practically, to a cult with many evil consequences. As reported in Singapore's Straits Times of Feb. 28, 2001, 136 Falun Gong followers committed suicide to achieve perfection before the practice was outlawed on July 22, 1999. Another 103 killed themselves after the ban to pursue Nirvana (spiritual liberation).

Up until now, Falun Gong has resulted in 1,660 deaths among its practitioners due to the refusal of medical treatment and suicide.

LienHe zaobao of Singapore further reported that, owing to Falun Gong, there have been 651 people suffering from mental disorders, 11 people convicted of murder and 144 people handicapped.

Very sadly, Mr. Peter Kerr, in his article on Falun Gong in the Post, also quoted one Falun Gong practitioner as saying that, after doing the Falun Gong exercises, they have no need to go to see a doctor or take medication.

As for the political power in China and its attitude toward religion, Mr. Jacques Gernet wrote in the book A History of Chinese Civilization: ""... but no clergy ever succeeded in gaining political power... We find in China, neither that subordination of the human order to the divine order, nor a vision of the world as a creation born of ritual and maintained by ritual which are part of the mental universe of India... Political power, generally conceived as the power of constraint and command, was seen in China as the principle that gave life and order... but constraint is always accompanied in China by the idea of moral correction... It would be a mistake to see the insistence laid on the regulation of morals as only a pretext, a sort of alibi for a tyrannical regime; it is in fact the expression of a privileged mode of political action which has lasted down to our day.""

Falun Gong now a political exercise

Peter Kerr in his first article (The Jakarta Post, May 8, 2001: Falun Gong strives for another dimension in life) said there were only about 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners in Jakarta. I wonder how many of these said practitioners actually read The Jakarta Post and why Kerr is offering a telephone line for English speakers for the Falun Gong seminar.

Couldn't he have found a more weighty, urgent or popular topic to write about than the Falun Gong. Is Kerr himself a practitioner of Falun Gong? I wonder too how many of the Post's readers are practitioners of Falun Gong.

Senior minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew said recently, as quoted by The Straits Times, the Falun Gong was now not a deep-breathing meditation exercise, but a heavy-breathing political exercise. Perhaps it can be added that the Falun Gong has become a much politicized cult, too.

Falun Gong and Communism

Wibowo who professes to be the head of the so-called center for Chinese studies, in his article in Kompas daily of March 14 titled RI, PRC and Falun Gong suggested that the Indonesian government and police should not, at the request of China, have banned the Falun Gong activity on March 3, 2002 as the Falun Gong was a domestic matter for China and instead should have acted the same -- to take no action -- as it did when faced with Lee Kuan Yew's allegation of terrorists in Indonesia. This is an absurd remark and a weak comparison.

Wibowo was referring to the gathering of Falun Gong followers from various countries at Monas square on March 3 who, after running through some Falun Gong calisthenics, proceeded to parade for demonstration down a Jakarta thoroughfare, but the parade was stopped by police as the permit was only for their exercises and not for a parade/demonstration.

Wibowo should know that Falun Gong is a domestic matter for China, and the Indonesian government should not allow its soil and newly found freedom and democracy to be hijacked by those Falun Gong followers from various countries who want to pursue their political agenda against China here.

He further reasoned that, as the Chinese Communist Party was born out of an underground movement utilizing sabotage techniques, it thus feared that Falun Gong would use the same tactics and strategy. Again, Wibowo made very absurd remarks and comparisons.
The China Communist Party or CCP was born, not as an underground movement, but was formed in a congress in Shanghai in July 1921 during 'warlordism' and civil war and even, then, had an alliance with KuoMinTang (KMT), but Chiang Kai-shek of the KMT betrayed that alliance by massacring thousands of the members of CCP in Shanghai in 1927-1928 that eventually forced the CCP to move to Jiangsi to form a Jiangsi soviet government.
And later, further under Chiang's extermination campaign, it had to evacuate in 1934-1935 to Yan`an with a force of 100,000 in the epic 9,600-kilometer Long March in which only 20,000 survived.

Original text from:

① http://www.thejakartapost.comews/2001/05/15/Falun Gong.html

②http://www.thejakartapost.comews/2001/06/23/Falun Gong-now-a-political-exercise.html

③http://www.thejakartapost.comews/2002/04/10/Falun Gong-and-communism.html