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Saudi Arabia grants RI bigger haj quota

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has increased Indonesia’s haj quota for pilgrims by 10,000 people following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s visit to the kingdom on Sunday

Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, April 16, 2019

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Saudi Arabia grants RI bigger haj quota

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span>King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has increased Indonesia’s haj quota for pilgrims by 10,000 people following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s visit to the kingdom on Sunday.

Previously, the quota provided by the Saudi government for Indonesia was 221,000, comprising 204,000 regular pilgrims and 17,000 special pilgrims.

“King Salman also expressed his great appreciation for Indonesia’s leadership in maintaining stability in the region and the world,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who accompanied Jokowi on the visit, said in a statement distributed to the press on Monday.

“From the discussion, there was a very close relationship between the two heads of state,” Retno said, adding that the leaders agreed that Indonesia and Saudi Arabia had agreed to set up an annual leaders-level consultation mechanism.

King Salman, who visited Indonesia in 2017, hosted Jokowi and his family in his palace for lunch in Riyadh on Sunday, followed later that evening by a dinner hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Jokowi’s audience with the Saudi royals, as well as his planned umrah (minor haj) to Islam’s holiest site Mecca just days ahead of the 2019 simultaneous election, has been widely seen as an effort to burnish his image as a devout Muslim and a friend of Saudi Arabia.

The visit was a repeat of the President’s trip to the Middle Eastern country five years ago near the beginning of his term.

As citizens of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, many Indonesians have to wait for years — and in some cases decades — before they can perform the haj, a mandatory religious duty for all able-bodied Muslims that must be carried out at least once in a lifetime.

The government has repeatedly lobbied Riyadh to increase the haj quota to meet the demands of Indonesia’s growing Muslim middle class.

Hamdan Basyar, a Middle East expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said Indonesia’s relations with Saudi Arabia were mostly driven by the interests of the people and the haj quota had always been a top priority.

“There are very long lines in many regions, such as in South Sulawesi where [waiting times] can be up to 30 years. If the quota is not increased every year, the line will become longer — that is why the government must always push for it,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

In addition to the haj quota, the protection of migrant workers should also be among of Indonesia’s priorities when it engages with Saudi Arabia, Hamdan suggested.

Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest destinations for Indonesian migrant workers, and while an effective ban on sending domestic workers there has been in place for years, some estimates place around 600,000 Indonesians currently working in the kingdom.

Hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers overseas still face the possibility of execution, for the most part in Saudi Arabia.

In October last year, the government protested against the execution of migrant worker Tuti Tursilawati, which was carried out without the prior knowledge of her family or Indonesian officials. The issue was left unresolved.

Instead, the government highlighted its intention to expand economic cooperation with Riyadh. “President Jokowi and King Salman agreed to improve economic cooperation, especially in the fields of energy and tourism,” Retno said.

Jokowi also met Saudi Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Khalid Al-Falih, to discuss cooperation and shed some light on a pledge of investment by Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) in a refinery project in Cilacap, Central Java.

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