House asks government to amend haj law

House asks government to amend haj law

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives have proposed amendments to Law No.
17/1999 on haj management to restrict the government's role in
haj affairs and improve services for pilgrims.

Deputy chairman of the House Commission VI overseeing
education and religious affairs Anwar Arifin from the Golkar
party said the commission agreed in an internal meeting on
Wednesday to push for revision of the law, which gives the
government full authority to regulate, conduct and supervise haj
services.

"The government's role at present can lead to huge corruption
as the government cannot punish itself for any misappropriation
of the public funds raised for the haj services," he told The
Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"We want the government role to be limited to only creating
regulations and supervising haj service, not in conducting the
services."

To conduct haj service, the House suggested the government
establish an independent body, Anwar said.

According to him, at present, the government, through the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, manages Rp 5 trillion (US$555
million) per year from about 200,000 pilgrims, who pay around Rp
25 million each.

"But what happens to the money is very unclear as there is no
transparent responsibility," he said.

The main problem in haj management is providing apartments for
Indonesian pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Anwar said, adding
that the apartments did not meet acceptable standard.

The government audit revealed that the religious ministry was
among the government institutions with the most cases of
irregularities.

Anwar said the House and the government had agreed in November
last year to computerize haj administration in 2004 for the sake
of transparency.

"But so far the government has not yet taken any measures to
implement the agreement. We have reminded them but they
apparently ignored us," he said.

According to legislator Rokib Abdul Kadir of the Reform
Faction, at present the management of haj is mainly conducted by
the government, while only about 23,000 pilgrims use the services
provided by private operators.

"There are problems in private operators, but there are a lot
more problems under the government's management," Rokib said.