Hindus contemplate own religious court

Hindus contemplate own religious court

By Puto Wirata

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Do Hindus in Indonesia need their own courts to deal with matters pertaining to their faith? Are the district courts sensitive enough to Hindu sentiments?

A polemic has developed over the past two weeks among religious and legal experts in Bali, a predominantly Hindu province, on the question of whether or not there should be a separate Hindu religious court in Indonesia.

Those arguing for such courts cite the way that district courts have dealt with growing cases of thefts of icons from many of Bali's Hindu temples in recent years. Among most recent cases were thefts in the artist village Ubud, in the Gianyar regency, the Peguyangan village in Badung regency and also in Buleleng, Klungkung and Tabanan regencies.

Most of the court verdicts, they felt, were too lenient because the cases were tried with common criminal law.

They certainly failed to take into account religious sentiments, the proponents argue.

"The verdict is somewhat felt to be unfair. It takes a great skill to assess the value of the icons," Ketut Wiana, a member of a team compiling Hindu laws, said.

The team was set up by the Parisadha Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI), or the Indonesian Hindu Religious Council, to compile Hindu legal principles, codify its law and look into the possibility of establishing a religious court.

The Indonesian legal system recognizes the presence of religious courts but to date, the House of Representatives has only enacted laws on Islamic courts to cater to the needs of the predominantly Moslem population. The Islamic courts deal particularly with marital and inheritance issues.

PHDI has requested for the opening up of Hindu courts way back since its fifth congress in 1986 and has held a series of seminars to discuss the prospect and preparations. The most recent one was on Feb. 7 here which started off the latest polemic.

Not all Hindu experts agree on the need for a religious court of their own.

"It's a step backward," commented Wayan Sudirta, a lawyer by training, in an article of the Bali Post daily newspaper.

It could even backfire on the religion, he said. Hindus who were discontent with the court verdicts could forsake their religion altogether, he said citing an example.

I Wayan Supartha, in another article in the same paper, also opposed said there was no need for Hindus to established their own courts of law because the national laws already absorbed many of Hindu's religious values.

If religious matters come up in a court case, the court could bring in religious experts to testify as expert witnesses, he added.

The PHDI's team compiling Hindu laws consists of officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and scholars from the council as well as from universities. It includes I Made Widnyana, I Made Pasek Diantha, Ketut Wiana, I Gede Sura, Wayan Koti Santika, Nyoman Sudana, I Nengah Suandha, I Ketut Sudhantra, I Ketut Rai Setiabudhi and I Ketut Keneng. The team has also visited areas with some concentration of Hindu community including Batak Karo in North Sumatra, Central Java, Dayak community in Central Kalimantan, Toraja in South Sulawesi, and neighboring Lombok Island.

I Gusti Ngurah Nata of the Udayana University in Bali and Ida Pedanda Putra Telaga, the chairman of the PHDI central executive board, said during the seminar that the creation of Hindu courts is now a pressing matter.

Dewa Gede Ngurah Swastha, who heads a forum of Hindu experts in Denpasar, said he was appaled at the fact that some Hindu people were opposed to the idea of their own court.

"Since it was the decision of the PHDI, we should all support it and help make it happen," he said.

The demand for Hindus to have their own court is not unreasonable because the unification of national laws is limited to matters that are neutral and universal, he said. But in Hindu, as in with most other religions, certain things cannot be neutralized or unified, he added.

Pasek Diantha, a member of a legal research team at the School of Law of Udayana University, said the Hindu community is faced with three alternatives on the issue.

In an article he wrote for Bali Post, Diantha said Hindus could push with its demand for their own court of law but this could take 20 years before it happened because that is how long it will take to compile and codify Hindu's legal principles.

The second, and one which Diantha says is more realistic and feasible, is to compile Hindu laws into one book and make it available to district courts and high courts in the country, and request that each of these courts devote one section for Hindu court system.

The third Another alternative is for Hindus to drop its demand altogether, he said.