HUMAN rights activists have called for the government to take more decisive action to undo discriminatory and environmentally damaging policies, framing Pope Francis’ push for interfaith dialogue to solve global humanitarian and environmental crises as a wake-up call.
Among the last items on the 87-year-old pontiff’s itinerary for his Jakarta visit was signing the Istiqlal Declaration, which urges religious leaders to take collaborative efforts in addressing humanitarian and environmental crises, including interfaith conflict.
Indonesia was the first stop on Pope Francis’ 12-day Asia-Pacific tour. While lauding the declaration as a milestone for improving interfaith ties among Indonesia’s six official religions, activists warned the government and religious leaders to avoid oversimplifying the four points contained in the declaration.
“There is a strong impression that the Indonesian government is trying to downplay the pope’s concern, as if the main problem lies only in pluralism and religious tolerance while everything else is fine,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, calling such behaviour “too reductionist”.
He argued that the more urgent issue facing the people at present was the state’s continuing engagement in acts of intolerance, including criminalising people under the draconian blasphemy law.
Among the examples Usman cited was the blasphemy case that resulted in the 2017 conviction of Meliana, a Chinese Indonesian in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, for complaining about the volume of azan (call to prayer) blasted from the loudspeakers of a local mosque.
He also highlighted the government’s recent abuse of power in allowing the expansion of mining permits for state-owned concessions to apply to religious organisations, which distorted the role of religious leaders and potentially exacerbated environmental degradation.
The government’s move has been welcomed primarily by Islamic groups, including the country’s two largest, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, whereas the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia (KWI) and the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), a Protestant group, objected to the policy change.
During his visit to Istiqlal Mosque on Thursday, Pope Francis underlined that Indonesia’s greatest wealth was not its gold mines, but the ability to maintain “harmony in diversity” to prevent conflict, a message he repeated while leading Mass at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium later that day.
Reflecting on the pontiff’s message, the government should “revoke regulations that discriminate against minority faiths and evaluate policies that could potentially lead to injustice and harm the environment”, Usman said.
Andreas Harsono, a journalist and Indonesia researcher of Human Rights Watch, said the Argentine pontiff’s three-day Indonesia visit should be an occasion for the government to revoke the 2006 joint ministerial decree on building places of worship, The decree requires a minority religion to secure consent from the majority religion of the planned site of their house of worship. It is often blamed for hindering minority religions from building houses of worship as well as permitting local communities to prevent their construction, including through acts of violence.
“The concept of religious harmony seems noble, but if we look at the joint decree, it suggests that majority (religion) have veto rights over minority (religions),” said Andreas.
“This undermines religious freedom as protected by law,” he said.
Minority religions in various areas have faced difficulties in building houses of worship, but restrictions on religious freedom have been more prevalent in Muslim-majority regions such as Java and Sumatra.
Houses of worship that operate without consensus from the local community are often persecuted, and such cases have seen a rise in recent years, from 24 cases in 2020 to 65 in 2023, according to rights group the Setara Institute.
During Pope Francis’s Indonesia visit, Papuan Catholics observed the Stations of the Cross by holding a procession in Jakarta and the two Papuan cities of Timika and Jayapura, partly as a means to voice the ongoing problem of armed violence in the easternmost territory in the hope of catching the pope’s attention.
Following the peaceful procession, Andreas urged the government to immediately suspend policies and practices that discriminate against Papuans.
“While not explicitly mentioning Papua, I think the pope was aware (about the issues in Papua), as he mentioned Indonesia’s largest gold mine,” Andreas said, which implied the Grasberg mine in Mimika. “Now, the onus is on Indonesia,” he added. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
