Government stand on Confucianism sparks anger

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)