Indonesian President Joko Widodo is set to sign a new law that aims to make it easier for minority groups to build houses of worship. - PHOTO: REUTERS
JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo is set to sign a presidential regulation that minority groups in Muslim-majority Indonesia hope would ease requirements to set up their places of worship.
The new law will replace two 2006 decrees passed by the religious affairs minister and home minister that have been blamed by minority groups for introducing tough conditions for the establishment of a church, temple or mosque for the minority Ahmadiyah Muslim group.
Under the decrees, proposers for a planned house of worship must produce a letter of support from at least 60 people living near the site, with the names confirmed by the village chief. Names and copies of identity cards of at least 90 worshippers who will be using the new facility also need to be submitted and verified by the village chief.
Before his second five-year term ends in October 2024, Mr Widodo is set to sign the new law, which officials said accommodates the changes that various religious groups have asked for.
Ahead of the 2014 presidential election, his campaign team has said that the 2006 decrees would be replaced as they have caused difficulties to minority groups to build prayer houses.
There was an attempt to address the issue through a Bill, which was among the 2015 to 2019 priority Bills to be deliberated by the House of Representatives.
But it had failed as Parliament “could not reach an agreement” with the government, said Dr Wawan Djunaedi, the director of the centre for inter-religious harmony at the Religious Affairs Ministry.
A draft of the new law, which has been circulating since July, has not allayed worries that the tough conditions would remain in place.
Rights activists who have had discussions with officials say they do not think things will change much under the new law, according to the draft they have seen, as key elements of the 2006 decrees will likely be retained.
“From what we know, there was not much change in the draft as the previous conditions (that restrict minorities from building new worship facilities) remain,” Mr Halili Hasan, executive director of Setara Institute, a rights group focusing on democracy and religious intolerance issues, told The Straits Times. He was referring to a draft the group received in mid-July.
In response to queries by ST, the presidential special staff in charge of legal affairs, Ms Dini Purwono, said that the draft regulation is still being discussed.
“The substance will change, and perhaps quite significantly, from the current draft,” she said.
In a national coordination meeting with regional leaders on Jan 17, Mr Widodo said they should guarantee freedom of religion and worship in their communities as guaranteed by the Constitution.
In Indonesia’s Lampung province, a congregation of Christians tried twice to build a church, in 2014 and 2023, and failed both times.
In May, the members of David’s Tabernacle Christian Church thought they had met all the requirements when their representative submitted an application to set up a new church for some 120 worshippers.
The application included a letter of support signed by 60 residents living around the proposed site in Bandar Lampung, the Sumatran province’s capital city, and a list of 90 worshippers, along with copies of their identity cards.
But the village chief of Rajabasa Jaya in Bandar Lampung replied in late August that a permit could not be issued as other residents rejected the building of a church there.
It was a repeat of what happened in 2014 despite the church fulfilling the requirements, said Mr Parlin Sihombing, a church council member.
“When we had 60 people supporting us and faced two or three people rejecting us, it caused a tension. In the end, we could not go on,” Mr Parlin, the church development committee chairman, told ST. “For a long time, the government has neglected us. It should have provided us with a place of worship.”
In another location in Cilegon, Banten province, more than 8,000 Christians have had to worship in the surrounding regions as no churches had been permitted to be established in that west Java town.
There were also no places of worship for other minority religious groups, including the Buddhists and Hindus, in the town, which, according to the Religious Affairs Ministry, was home to 382 mosques and 287 musallas (small mosques) in 2019.
Around 87 per cent of Indonesia’s 277.8 million population are Muslim.
Dr Ihsan Ali Fauzi, the director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Democracy at Jakarta-based Paramadina University, said that Muslims in a number of regions have made it harder for non-Muslims to set up their places of worship for various reasons.
“Some people think about how to park their vehicles when a church is built there... Others fear Christianisation,” he said.
News weekly Tempo reported that Indonesian Vice-President Ma’ruf Amin said the Indonesia Ulema Council, where he sits as chairman of its advisory council, supported the inclusion of several articles of the 2006 decrees in the draft presidential regulation. The council has actively given input to the draft.
Mr Halili described the requirement of approval from local residents and worshippers as “the biggest source of discrimination” in the decrees.
He added that it has also been used as a means to justify rejection of plans to build houses of worship and he hopes for its removal from the draft of the presidential regulation.
It should be lifted “to fulfil the mandate of the Constitution”, in which the state guarantees the citizens’ freedom to have religions and worship according to their faiths.
Catholic activist Benny Susetyo also called for the arrangements from the 2006 decrees to be removed from the draft of the presidential regulation.
“The approval from 60 residents is a hindrance and has become a means for people to exert their will. If those already agreeing (with the plan) withdraw, it will create a new problem,” he said.
He said the Catholics have experienced a number of instances where the requirement had been met and building permits had been issued, but when a group of people vented their disapproval, such as through demonstrations, regional leaders faced public pressure to withdraw the permit.
Professor Philip K. Widjaja, chairman of the Indonesian Buddhist Association, said that there were cases where Buddhists faced difficulties in building viharas, or monasteries, due to the requirements in the two decrees.
“If the locals have an intention to reject (the building of the vihara), they can do that. Even when we can secure support from our members, the residents still will not give consent,” he told ST.
He hopes the draft of the presidential regulation will introduce necessary changes that can “accommodate the interests of all religious groups in Indonesia”.
However, Dr Ihsan viewed the requirement of having support from local residents and a list of worshippers as indicating a need for the authorities to regulate the establishment of houses of worship.
The requirement to have the approval of 60 local residents should not be a problem – it becomes a hindrance only when other factors, such as politics and social envy, are involved, he said.
In January, Setara released a report based on data collected between 2007 and 2022 that revealed 573 cases of disturbances to worship and places of worship across Indonesia. These included the stopping of worship, rejecting the presence of places of worship, and the intimidation of worshippers. - The Straits Times/ANN
