Govt stance on Confucianism criticized

SURABAYA (JP): Observers criticized yesterday the government's stance on the number of religions to be classified as "sanctioned".

Moslem scholars Abdurrahman Wahid and Djohan Effendi, together with human rights campaigner Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto agreed in a seminar here yesterday that in a state which upholds people's sovereignty and the principles of justice and freedom, the government had no right to impose a limitation on the number of religions its subjects could embrace.

"The government has been too formalistic and bureaucratic in viewing the existence of religions here," said Abdurrahman, chairman of the 30-million strong Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama.

There are five recognized faiths in Indonesia: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Confucianism, despite its large following, is unrecognized; some officials consider it as a school of philosophy.

"This stance displays the government's excessive hegemony in regulating religions," said Abdurrahman, who is better-known as Gus Dur.

Held by the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Surabaya University, the seminar, titled "The Existence of Religions and Human Rights", was focused on the case of a couple of Chinese- descent who, married in a traditional Confucius ceremony, were denied a marriage certificate by a local civil registry office.

Lanny Guito and Budi Wijaya were told by the office that they should register in one of the five recognized religions. The couple refused and filed a lawsuit against the office.

The office based its rejection on a Ministry of Home Affairs decree and other documents. The officials argued that, according to the documents, Confucianism is "not a religion, but simply a school of philosophy".

Lanny gave birth to a baby girl in July, who is yet to be named. The couple could not request a birth certificate -- thus legally naming their baby -- without a marriage certificate.

Abdurrahman said history had shown that all the ancient kings that ruled Indonesia had always respected religions other than their own that their subjects followed.

"If the government now refuses to recognize Confucianism, then the stance is antihistoric," he said.

Djohan Effendi, a senior researcher at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, seconded Abdurrahman, saying that the government lacks a clear concept as to what it meant when it stated that Indonesia is neither a theocratic nor a secular state.

"Religions should be given the autonomy to regulate themselves," Djohan said.

Djohan said he believed that Confucianism had all the "conditions" that qualified it to be called a religion. "The question of (whether to recognize) Confucianism is closely related with that of the freedom of belief, which the Constitution guarantees," he said.

He criticized the government's stance, which turned itself into a source of legitimacy for religions. "This way, the existence of a religion is determined by the policies of the power holders," he said.

Soetandyo reiterated that the government does not have the right to "discriminate (and limit) people's freedom to hold any beliefs".

Soetandyo said that unless the government exercised caution and wisdom in the matter, it would find itself in a difficult position to answer to international criticism.

Abdurrahman said the government would also encounter "a crisis of legitimacy" if it continued applying a "double-standard" in viewing the relation between religions and the state.

"The government has often said it recognized only the five religions. Many other times, however, it also said that it would never interfere in religions' internal affairs," Abdurrahman said.

Separately, Lanny and Budi's lawyer, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, said yesterday that the 1974 Law No. 1 on Marriage does not make any reference to the government recognizing marriages conducted only in the five recognized religions.

Indonesia's followers of Confucianism constitute 0.7 percent (about 1,365,000) of the country's 195 million people. (15/31)