At Heart of Indonesia's Sectarian Ills, a Government-Sponsored Diktat
Jakarta. The recent number of attacks on religious communities in various Indonesian provinces has prompted the Indonesian government to review a controversial 2006 joint ministerial decree on establishing houses of worship.
"My office and the Religious Affairs Ministry are seeking to amend our decree on building houses of worship so that everyone will show respect when a religious community is setting up their holy place," Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said on Tuesday as quoted by Antara.
However, Tjahjo did not provide specific details on what proposed changes would be made to the ministerial commandment.
Human rights activists have lauded the government's decision to revise the archaic decree, which they blame for catalyzing tensions among Indonesia's religious communities.
Religious violence
The latest sectarian clash took place in the Aceh Singkil district of Aceh, the only Indonesian province running under Islamic shariah laws, where a mob of some 500 people torched a Protestant church over claims that the building did not have the requisite permits to operate as a house of worship.
The National Police have dismissed the district police chief over his failure to adequately handle the incident, which took place on Oct. 13, a day before the celebration of the Islamic New Year, and arrested more than 10 people for provoking the clash.
The Aceh arson attack happened just a few months after a riot erupted in Papua's Tolikara district, where members of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) set fire to several buildings, including a mosque where a group of Muslims were about to perform the Idul Fitri prayer.
The police have also detained two suspects for inciting the violent clash over the use of loudspeakers during the mass prayer there.
Ulterior motives
"The attacks usually [occur at] house of worships because these are the most apparent symbol of a religion," Bonar Tigor Naipospos, a director at the human rights NGO Setara Institute, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.
Bonar pointed out that mass transmigration, sponsored for decades by the government, had resulted in newcomers failing to adjust to the customs and traditions of residents who had lived in the area for a long time.
"The [newcomers] have often turned out to be intolerant people who force their conservative opinions and [religious] views on society, [thus creating] a rift with the locals," Bonar says.
However, Poenky Indarti, the executive director of Imparsial, another rights NGO, told the Globe that the incidents were no longer only motivated by religious intolerance, but political and economic factors also played a role.
According to Poengky, violent attacks on places of worship occur because there are local-based groups that often target religious communities that refuse to pay protection fees when they wish to build the holy buildings.
She also said that candidates for local administrations would only put forward the interests of certain religious communities who also happen to comprise the majority in the politician's respective constituency when campaigning for regional elections.
Looking forward
"The joint decree is no longer relevant to the situation right now, because as society develops, the need to have more houses of worship rises exponentially," Poengky said.
The government, if anything, must go as far as revising the joint ministerial decree into a presidential decree that would see it have a bigger impact, Bonar said.
He added that the government should also establish an ad-hoc commission to oversee all issues connected to Indonesian religious communities. "When the commission succeeds in identifying the core issues, it will report to the government in order to fashion better regulations," Bonar said.
Poengky urged the Religious Affairs Ministry to propose to the House of Representatives a bill that would improve on existing legislation to protect religious communities.
"The bill must put forward the protection of religious groups that are the minority," she said.
While experts believe that revising the regulations are important, they say law enforcement is highly imperative to prevent acts of violence against congregations across the nation.
"Law enforcers must eliminate radical groups who spread hate speech and also intimidate the freedom of worship," Bonar said.
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