Government stand on Confucianism sparks anger
JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers and experts are lambasting the government's ambivalent stand on Confucianism, questioning its authority to exclude Confucianism from the original list of six religions recognized in Indonesia as guaranteed by laws.
The debate flared earlier this year when the Surabaya administration refused to register the marriage of a Confucian couple on the pretext that Confucianism is "not a religion but simply a school of philosophy."
Lawyers Trimoelja D. Soerjadi and Dewi Novirianti said that Confucianism has legal basis, from the 1945 Constitution to lower laws, such as Law No. 1/1974 on marriage.
Trimoelja said the confusion stems from Presidential Decree No. 45/1974, which stipulates that the government recognizes only five religions, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism and Protestantism. He argues that the decree is inconsistent with higher laws.
"Lower regulations are sometimes in conflict with the higher ones, which is not surprising here," Trimoelja told The Jakarta Post.
Dewi Novirianti said that government policy is that the state respects its citizens' rights to embrace any religion of their choice.
"That means that the country does not specify any particular religion." she said. "Law no. 1/1965, she said, confirms that Confucianism is among "the religions the government recognizes."
She warned that governmental rejection of a religion would harm women because their husbands would, by law, be able to take another wife because their marriage has no legal basis.
A Surabaya religious ministry official, Nahar Nachrowi, added fuel to the debate when he told the local administrative court hearing a suit filed by a Confucian couple denied registration that Confucianism is not a religion.
Nahar argued that Confucianism did not qualify as a religion because its teachings do not include doctrine on life after death as revelation religions do. It discusses only morality.
Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher also reportedly said last week that Confucianism, which originated from mainland China is a philosophy.
But Candra Setiawan, the chairman of the Indonesian Confucianism Council, said that Confucianism does have doctrine on afterlife.
He said that the Confucian believers, mostly of Chinese descent, face various social and administrative discrimination, especially when they tend to administrative matters, such as seeking identity cards. They have to deal with an arduous tangle of bureaucracy and pay an unfairly high charge when seeking naturalization.
"We have been discounted in population censuses since the 1980s," he said, Candra said, adding that Indonesian Confucianism believers constitute 0.7 percent (about 1,365,000) of Indonesia's 195 million population.
Many Confucian communities in Indonesia, Candra added, are indigenous people. They live in areas such as Tuban, East Java; Surakarta, Purworejo and Cilacap in Central Java; Tangerang, Rawa Bokor, Citeureup and Pondok Cabe in West Java.
Yogyakarta-based history of religions experts Th. Sumartana and H. Lasiyo agreed that one definition of religion cannot be forced into another religion because there are many definitions of religions, including Confucianism.
"Religious believers should regain their authority to define religion, and the government should only act as 'registerer'," Sumartana said.
"What the government fears is possibly the revival of Chinese cultural expressions. Until the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was banned, people of Chinese descent were allowed to hold cultural shows, such as street parades, he said.
Jakarta accused Beijing of assisting the PKI, which was blamed for the 1965 abortive coup. (prs)