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Clues for the clueless
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Haj pilgrims board an aircraft at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday, Aug.9, 2016. (JP/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
T
he gradual restoration of the haj quota for Indonesians this year has apparently not done much to significantly reduce the growing number of pilgrims on the country’s waiting list.
This year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — host of the annual ritual of the fifth pillar of Islam — has given 20,000 more slots in addition to last year’s 168,000.
Still, the figure is much lower than in 2012 when Saudi Arabia allowed 211,000 pilgrims from Indonesia.
The quotas were originally set based on each country’s population, but since 2013 they have been reduced due to the ongoing renovation and expansion of the al-Haram Grand Mosque in Mecca. The project is expected to be completed at the end of this year.
Year by year, the period of waiting continues to protract as more and more Indonesians become financially capable of performing the haj, particularly due to the “ease” provided by “bank-saving plans”.
Under the scheme, pilgrims do not need to deposit a certain amount of money to be registered as eligible candidates, but simply pay monthly installments as the banks cover the deposits for them.
The waiting period for Indonesians differs from one region to another. According to the most recent list from the Religious Affairs Ministry, the earliest departure will be pilgrims from North Sulawesi and Gorontalo in 2027, while the latest departure will be candidates from South Kalimantan in 2043.
A different case can be seen in the country’s most populated province, West Java, as scheduled departures for candidates differ from one city or regency to another. The soonest departure will be candidates from Sukabumi and Cianjur regencies in 2027 and the latest from Bekasi in 2034.
It is under these circumstances that people have been looking for any possible way to avoid waiting for years to go on the haj. The latest case in point is the arrest last week of 177 Indonesians at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Philippines, on their planned pilgrimage using Philippine passports. They were reported to have used slots from the “underused haj quota” of the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country.
The protracted waiting list cases need an immediate solution. One possible solution is for the government to ask for unused slots from countries with underused quotas, including the Philippines.
Another is to ask the Saudi government to allocate more slots for Indonesian pilgrims.
To cut the long waiting list the government could also strictly give priority to those who have not yet performed the pilgrimage.
The last and most extreme effort would be to abolish the bank-saving plans for pilgrim candidates. The haj is meant for those considered capable in many aspects, including financially.
Those joining such bank schemes are actually not financially eligible to perform the haj as yet. Should they wish to go to Mecca in haste, they could still go on umrah (minor pilgrimage) instead.
