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Discrimination holds back religious minority children
A state elementary school in North Kalimantan has been accused of violating students’ rights.
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Freedom to worship: Jehovah’s Witnesses attend a service in Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan, in this 2018 file photo. (Courtesy of Tribunpontianak/Bella)
I
n December 2021, I had the chance to talk with a bright 14-year-old girl named Maria Tunbonat, a fifth-grader in a state school in Tarakan, North Kalimantan. Her father, Ayub, also joined the video call as we spoke about her school and her hobbies.
Maria has been a fifth-grader for three years because her teachers refuse to let her move on to the next grade. The reason? Maria and her family are Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jehovah's Witnesses originated in the United States during the 19th century but have since expanded worldwide. Now they have 510 congregations in Indonesia. The group said it had 8.7 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide in 2021.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have specific views on key Christian theological issues that make them unpopular with some members of the Christian establishment in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world. Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Indonesia between 1976 and 2001. In 2002, the Religious Affairs Ministry allowed them to register in Indonesia.
In November 2021, the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) revealed that Maria and her two younger brothers at SDN 51 state elementary school in Tarakan had been denied a passing grade since 2019 despite their excellent academic records.
Ayub told me that he, his wife and children, Maria, Yosua (grade 4), and Yonatan (grade 2) had converted to become Jehovah’s Witnesses in November 2018. It seemed like a simple conversion, but teachers at the local school disapproved, saying the children were “deviating from Christian teachings".
In 2019, the school expelled them, saying the three siblings had refused to sing the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya. The siblings had joined school assemblies and stood with respect but refused to sing and salute the national flag in accordance with Jehovah’s Witnesses' beliefs.
