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Indonesia’s religious harmony rising, Aceh and West Sumatra score lowest
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Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi arrives at the State Palace on Oct. 22. (JP/Donny Fernando)
I
ndonesia’s religious harmony is improving according to the latest Religious Affairs Ministry data, which shows a slight increase in the religious harmony index to 73.83 points from 70.9 in 2018.
Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi noted that in the past five years, the average index had always been above 70 in the 0-100 range, which is considered “high.”
"The figure has increased compared with last year, but it is still low compared with 2015, when it reached 75.3,” Fachrul said in a written statement on Wednesday.
Fachrul claimed that Indonesia’s religious harmony had been relatively good in the last five years, saying that Indonesians must be proud of this and maintain it.
"This means that during the last five years, our religious harmony has been in a good condition. However, we need to find out what factors could affect it in the future and improve it.”
In 2018, the index slid to 70.9 from 72.27 points in 2017. In 2016 the index reached 75.47 points, up slightly from 75.36 in 2015.
The survey was carried out on May 16-19 and June 18-24 this year with a total 13,600 respondents in 34 provinces. The survey’s margin of error was 4.6 percent.
The index has three dimensions, namely tolerance, equality and cooperation among religious communities. According to the data, the cooperation dimension scored the highest with 75.40 points; tolerance 72.37; and equality 73.72.
The index has several determinants, namely family education, implementation of local wisdom, household income, religious heterogeneity and the role of the ministry.
The ministry found that some provinces still recorded low religious harmony index, or below the national average, namely East Java (73.7); East Kalimantan (73.6); Gorontalo (73.2); Bangka Belitung Islands (73.1); Lampung (73.1); Riau Island (72.8); North Maluku (72.7); South Kalimantan (72.5); South Sumatra (72.4); Bengkulu (71.8); Jakarta (71.3); Jambi (70.7); West Nusa Tenggara (70.4); Riau (69.3); Banten (68.9); West Java (68.5); West Sumatra (64.4); and the lowest Aceh (60.2).
The highest scores were recorded in West Papua (82.1); East Nusa Tenggara (81.1); Bali (80.1); North Sulawesi (79.9); Maluku (79.4); Papua (79.0); North Kalimantan (78.0); Central Kalimantan (77.8); West Kalimantan (76.7); North Sumatra (76.3); South Sulawesi (75.7); Central Sulawesi (75.0); Central Java (74.6); DI Yogyakarta (74.2); West Sulawesi (74.1); and Southeast Sulawesi (73.9). (ggq)
