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Ministry may revise decree on houses of worship
The Religious Affairs Ministry said Wednesday it was open to revision of a 2006 joint ministerial decree requiring local consent on sites for houses of worship, provided religious leaders agreed
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he Religious Affairs Ministry said Wednesday it was open to revision of a 2006 joint ministerial decree requiring local consent on sites for houses of worship, provided religious leaders agreed.
The ministry’s statement came amid calls to amend the controversial decree voiced by a political party, NGOs, a House leader and the Constitutional Court chief.
The ministry’s director general of guidance to the Muslim community, Nasaruddin Umar, told The Jakarta Post that his office would welcome changing the decree should leaders of religious mass organizations want this. He was quick to add that so far, “there has yet to be such a wish”.
“Religious leaders were the ones who agreed on every single word in the ministerial decree when it was first issued in 1969. Religious leaders were also the ones who clinched the deal to revise it in 2006. So if there has to be another revision now, it should come from them,” he said.
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, said Tuesday a revision was necessary to stop the decree from being open to interpretation.
Critics have argued that the joint ministerial decree — signed by the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Home Ministry — has made it difficult for minority religious groups to establish houses of worship, thus posing a possible violation of their constitutional rights.
Calls to amend the decree mounted following the attack on congregation members of the HKBP church in Bekasi on Sunday. Two church leaders were injured in the incident.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called the incident “a sensitive and serious” problem. “There is no room for violence by anybody. Especially when it comes to the relationship between religious followers,” he said.
Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD recommended evaluating the content of the decree.
“The country has seen rapid social mobility in recent years. It is possible that the decree no longer suits today’s society,” he added.
House leader Pramono Anung of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said he wanted “the elimination of everything that hindered the freedom of religion”.
Appeals to amend the decree were also voiced by the United Development Party (PPP), of which Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali is the chairman.
PPP executive Lukman Hakim Saifudin said if the decree flawed, it should be revised. “A pluralistic society has to uphold tolerance for those who worship,” he said.
The deputy chairman of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, Bonar Tigor Naipospos, said a revised decree should not require local consent to set up houses of worship.
“When issuing a permit for a house of worship, regional administrations should refer only to their spatial planning and not to whether [the locals] consent to it,” he said.
But Nasaruddin said the decree has protected the rights of minorities by requiring such local consent.
“After all the requirements are met, there will be no reason for the regional administrations not to give a permit,” he added.
