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House urges next government to find ‘better’ religious affairs minister
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Pilgrims perform the tawaf al-Ifada, a mandatory circumambulation around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the climax of the annual haj at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, on Aug. 11, 2019. (AFP/Fethi Belaid)
T
he House of Representatives’ special committee to inquire into the government’s management and organization of this year’s haj has concluded its month-long investigation and come up with several recommendations, including that the next government find a better religious affairs minister.
The committee's head Nusron Wahid revealed during the House’s final plenary meeting for the 2019-2024 term on Monday that poor supervision by the Religious Affairs Ministry was among the reasons behind the potential misuse of the haj quota for this year.
For example, the ministry’s verification team “poorly managed” its online system, preventing pilgrims who were already in line to perform their haj this year from going. On the other hand, such a technical issue potentially allowed a handful of pilgrims to cut the years-long queue and go to Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca right away.
“The system is not regularly audited and thus its security is compromised. There are also too many stakeholders who have access to the system, from the haj registration directorate to the banks,” Nusron said, highlighting how prone it is to intervention.
The committee also found that the ministry’s inspectorate general did not oversee the distribution process of the additional haj quota that Indonesia received this year.
Read also: House launches inquiry on this year’s haj organization
The Saudi Arabian government allocated an extra quota of 20,000 to Indonesia for this year’s haj pilgrimage, making a total of 241,000 places for Indonesian pilgrims, the largest number in the Muslim-majority country’s history.
