Four cabinet ministers to go on haj pilgrimage

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Four cabinet ministers will depart for Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to perform the haj pilgrimage with other Muslims from all over the globe.

The four ministers are Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Hussein Al Munawar, Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi, Minister of Forestry Mohammad Prakosa and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Said Agil will take the role of Indonesian amirul haj (chief of haj pilgrims).

The religious ministry's official website for haj management www.informasihaji.com reported that 169,028 of 205,000 Indonesians who registered as haj pilgrims this year, have arrived in Saudi for the pilgrimage.

Of the pilgrims, 56 have died and been buried in separate locations in Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah. The latest deaths were Suhud bin Tardjo, 92, and Ramsi bin Julung, 77, who both died on Thursday.

There are currently 64 Indonesians receiving medical treatment at a clinic for Indonesian pilgrims in Mecca.

Antara news agency reported that many Indonesians on the haj pilgrimage were suffering from coughs and influenza, although their illness was apparently manageable.

Their condition has been blamed on the contrast between the climates of Medina and Mecca. In Medina the temperature was reportedly between 8 and 15 degrees Celsius, while in Mecca it was around 24 degrees Celsius.

The religious minister recently came under fire following the failure of some 30,000 people to perform their pilgrimages, although they had already paid for their travel.

A coalition of eight non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had reported the minister to the police for public lies. They also called for an audit into the wealth of the minister and officials at the ministry.

In response to the move, Said Agil filed a libel lawsuit against the NGOs.

Indonesia was requesting 30,000 additional places for pilgrims from the Saudi government when the ministry announced that extra places had become available.

Despite the limited number of places, a number of religious affairs offices in some regions, however, reported that not all flights to Saudi Arabia were fully booked.

Burhanuddin, an official with the religious affairs agency in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, revealed on Wednesday seven flights were fully booked, while there were still seats left on 15 other flights.

For each flight, between one to six seats were not booked. The total number of available seats is 24, he said.

The pilgrimage ends with the Islamic Day of Sacrifice on Feb. 1.