S Tangerang staff to wear Muslim attire once a week

Multa Fidrus and Dicky Christanto
The Jakarta Post

Tangerang | Wed, April 24, 2013 | 05:05 pm

South Tangerang Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany announced on Wednesday the administration's plan for all Muslim staff to wear Muslim attire every Friday while non-Muslims should continue to wear their civil servant uniforms.

Airin said that all male employees would wear long-sleeve collarless shirts 'locally known as baju koko ' and the traditional black cone-shaped hat ' known as peci ' while their female counterparts should wear hijab, a loose dress and a long white skirt or loose pants. She believed this policy could have a positive effect on employees' working performance.

Similarly, Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim had earlier said staff must wear Muslim clothes in an effort to build the administration's religious atmosphere.

Commenting on this, deputy director of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) Choirul Anam said that the mayor was seriously mistaken in interpreting Islamic values.

'Accelerate physical development by building public facilities, providing better health access and education ' especially for the poor ' and implement monitoring to avoid corruption. These
are more Islamic than requiring people to wear Muslim attire,' he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the mayor's initiative was a clear violation of the constitution and Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi should conduct a thorough evaluation of the new policy.