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Govt told to revoke decree on houses of worship
Critics have demanded the government revoke a 2006 ministerial decree on obtaining building permits for houses of worship, saying the regulation was often abused to suppress religious freedom and minority rights
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ritics have demanded the government revoke a 2006 ministerial decree on obtaining building permits for houses of worship, saying the regulation was often abused to suppress religious freedom and minority rights.
Politicians, academics and activists said Sunday’s attack on congregation members of the HKBP church in Bekasi was only one of many religiously charged incidents that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration had witnessed and largely ignored over the past six years.
They called on the government to talk with religious leaders to find solutions to the numerous conflicts stemming from the state’s failure to defend the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion.
Critics say Ministerial Decrees 8 and 9 jointly issued by the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Home Ministry in 2006 allowed for multiple interpretations and were “manipulated” by Muslim hardliners and the Bekasi administration as a pretext to deny congregation members a presence in the area.
“The President has turned a blind eye to the serious violations of religious freedom and the use of violence in the name of a certain religion,” International Center for Islam and Pluralism executive director M. Syafi’i Anwar said.
He added that to avoid a descent into violence, new regulations were needed as required by the Constitution, state ideology Pancasila and the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that Indonesia ratified in 1995.
Advocates of pluralism were shocked by an incident Sunday when hard-line Muslims, opposed to a plan by the HKBP church to construct a house of worship in the area, attacked congregation members, leaving two church leaders injured, one critically from a stab wound.
Regional Representatives Council Speaker Irman Gusman criticized Yudhoyono for washing his hands of the issue by delegating the search for a solution to the Bekasi mayor.
“Under regional autonomy, the central government retains authority in religious affairs. With the joint ministerial decrees, regional heads are in the position of issuing building permits for houses of worship,” he said, adding that the local administration’s authority was to facilitate, not to bar, people from building houses of worship.
On Tuesday, the President instructed Cabinet ministers, the governor of West Java, the Bekasi mayor and religious leaders in the municipality to work on a solution. “I hope this can be solved expediently,” he said.
On the cyber front, 4,656 people signed an online petition at www.petitiononline.com urging the government to find a comprehensive solution to the conflict, which they said threatened pluralism in Indonesia.
“This is to show public sympathy for victims of violence. People are fed up with what has been allowed to happen,” Hera Diani, one of the organizers of the petition, said.
However, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah and the Inter-Religious Council Indonesia (IRC) presidium, insisted the decree was needed to regulate the building of houses of worship.
“We religious leaders support the decree,” he said, adding that a revision was necessary to stop
the decree from being open to interpretation.
Amidhan, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), said that while building a place of worship “is indeed a universal human right”, it had to be regulated through legislation such as the decree.
“Religious issues are highly sensitive here,” he said. (gzl)
EXCERPTS FROM THE 2006 JOINT MINISTERIAL DECREE
Article 13
• The establishment of a house of worship should be based on real needs and on the demographic composition of the subdistrict.
• A house of worship should not disrupt public peace and order.
• When the demographic composition of a certain religion is too small in a subdistrict, a house of worship can include worshipers within a district or a regency/municipality.
Article 14
• A house of worship should comply with the administrative and technical requirements of a building.
• The establishment of a house of worship has to pass several special requirements including: obtaining a list of the names
of 90 worshippers along with copies of
their ID cards; support from at least 60 locals, signed and approved by the head
of the subdistrict; a written recommendation from the head of the regental or municipal religious office; a written recommendation from the Interreligious Forum.
• In the event of failure to get local support, the regional administration is obliged to find a place for the house of worship.
Article 21
• When a conflict occurs, the regional administration has to mediate in a fair and impartial manner.
TBL
