As religious tolerance stagnated in the past year throughout the country, West Kalimantan’s Singkawang was found to be Indonesia’s most tolerant city while Banten’s Cilegon was the most intolerant, a study by human rights advocacy group Setara Institute revealed.
The 2022 study measured the religious tolerance of 94 cities across Indonesia based on the regional regulations toward religious tolerance, social dynamics, actions by the city administration as well as each city’s social and religious demographics.
Singkawang is ranked first, followed by Salatiga in Central Java in second place and Bekasi in West Java in third place.
While Singkawang and Salatiga have usually been ranked high in Setara’s tolerance index, Bekasi is a success story, as it was ranked 93rd out of 94 cities in 2015, but it improved over time: by 2017, it ranked 53rd.
Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani said as Setara’s Tolerance City Index entered its sixth iteration, it had helped to improve religious tolerance in cities as they sought to improve themselves in response to the index.
He pointed out that Bekasi was among the 10 least tolerant cities when Setara first launched the tolerance index, but the city administration kept improving until it reached the top three in the 2022 index.
“This is not just because cities wanted to be assessed by Setara, but they realise Setara’s publications have an impact on the cities themselves; for example, being read by the Home Ministry for evaluation,” Ismail said during the launch of Setara’s 2022 Tolerant City Index on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the least tolerant city according to the 2022 index is Cilegon, followed by Depok in West Java at 93rd and then Padang in West Sumatra at 92nd.
Ismail said leadership and discriminatory regulations were some of the contributing factors leading to intolerance in a city. The cities at the bottom of the index also tended to have discriminatory regulations, often based on religion, he added.
“We are not saying people should not practise their religions with strong devotion, but if by doing so they negate the rights of other groups or go too far, then that’s favouritism. If it’s done by a state actor then it’s injustice,” Ismail said.
However, based on the national tally of all 94 cities, there has been a slight decline in the religious tolerance score between 2021 and 2022, from 5.24 to 5.03.
Ismail said the stagnating score was also in line with other studies that pointed out civil freedom at large was in decline last year.
“This is also confirmed by real incidents we witnessed. Most well known was the rejection of a church being constructed in Cilegon in 2022,” Ismail said.
He referred to the Cilegon mayor’s decision in September 2022 to refuse the proposed construction of Maranatha Barak Protestant Church, citing a 1975 ordinance by Serang regency banning the construction of churches in Cilegon.
The latest Setara study provided baseline data on how cities practised tolerance and social inclusion. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
