Joint religious office must be independent: Scholars
Muhammad Nafik, Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Scholars from different faiths gave backing on Wednesday for a call to establish a joint office to promote religious harmony across the country, but stressed that it must be independent and credible.
They warned that such a joint religious secretariat would become ineffective once it allowed the government to intervene and accommodated only government-recognized religions.
"The proposal is good as long as such an office is initiated and undertaken by the people, not the government," Azyumardi Azra, rector of Jakarta's State Islamic University (UIN), told The Jakarta Post.
He argued that similar bodies had been set up during former president Soeharto's authoritarian regime of 32 years but proved useless as they were under government control.
"If the proposed secretariat is formed by the government, it will be ungenuine and formal so that people are reluctant to freely express their grievances," Azyumardi added.
Another Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla shared a similar opinion, saying a possible structural relation between the joint office and the Ministry of Religious Affairs should be avoided to ensure its independence and credibility.
He said the proposed secretariat was possibly not enough and that its status could be upgraded as a joint commission for different religions similar to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
"It should serve as a clearing house that will intensify coordination and communications among religious leaders and followers, particularly in cases of conflict," said Ulil, who is a project coordinator with the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP).
He said the proposed joint secretariat should also play a role as a pressure group advocating campaigns against discriminatory policies on interfaith.
The policies may include a decree jointly issued in 1969 by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which bans interfaith proselytizing.
The decree requires the construction of houses of worship (not excluding mosques as reported by the Post on Wednesday) to obtain permission from the local government and residents.
On Tuesday Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu leaders together with the House of Representatives agreed on the need to set up a joint office in Jakarta and regional levels.
They said the secretariat was aimed at helping restore the relationship between religious adherents, which has been tarnished by sectarian conflicts in several parts of the country.
The initiators hoped the government would facilitate the move by helping cover its operational costs.
But Johannes Hariyanto, a deputy chairman of the ICRP, opposed the establishment of any joint religious institution should it be linked structurally with the government.
"Formalizing a religious body will only make it bureaucratic and this will pose a new burden on us and will thus be unacceptable to the people," he said.
Trisno S. Sutanto, coordinator of the Dialog for the Inter- Religious Society (Madia) program belonging to the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), concurred, saying the secretariat should completely be independent and should serve as an umbrella for all religious organizations.
"If the government is allowed to join, that the proposed body is feared to exclude unrecognized religions, such as Confucianism and Taoism," he said.