Limited quota may prevent 1,181 Muslim from Mecca
Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Up to 1,181 of 1,198 Muslims who have registered to go on the haj pilgrimage through a private travel firm in Yogyakarta may not yet get to their destination -- Mecca, Saudi Arabia -- next year due to the limited haj quota allocated to Indonesia.
The affected participants would all be those who have registered under the "Haj Plus" scheme, which offers better services to Indonesian pilgrims in Mecca.
Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Hussein Al-Munawar has issued a decree under which the "Haj Plus" quota for Yogyakarta is set at only 27 pilgrims.
At least 17 of these places would be granted to prospective pilgrims from the Taruna Al-Qur'an Islamic boarding school, which owns the private company in question, PT Gema Wahyu Pratama.
An executive of PT Gema Wahyu, M. Abdurrachman, said on Friday that his company received applications from thousands of Muslims who wanted to go on pilgrimage after they heard that the Saudi Arabian government was not imposing a quota.
"That's why we registered 1,198 people since January," Abdurrachman told reporters after meeting with Yogyakarta councillors.
The meeting was also attended by legislator Anwar Arifin from the House of Representatives' religion commission.
Abdurrachman admitted that his company has been in a quandary since it received a copy of the decree in July.
He explained that the 1,198 people had paid US$4,500 each to the company to join the "Haj Plus" program, saying that some of the money had been spent on buying tickets and paying for accommodation.
"We want the central government to change the quota and allow us to send as many as pilgrims as in 2004," he said.
Abdurrachman threatened to send dozens of prospective pilgrims to Jakarta to stage a demonstration against the Ministry of Religious Affairs over the limited quota allocated to Yogyakarta.
Meanwhile, legislator Anwar Arifin promised to discuss the problem with Minister Said Agil.
"For the future, we need to review the regulations governing the haj," he said, adding that the House of Representatives is currently drafting a bill on the subject.
Last month, Said Agil said the government would ask the Saudi Arabian government to increase its quota for next year's pilgrimage, which is currently set at only 205,000 Indonesians.
"We will propose that the Saudi government allow between 10,000 and 30,000 Indonesian people currently on the waiting list to take part in next year's haj pilgrimage," he said
The minister said many other provinces, including West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, East Java, East Kalimantan, South Sumatra and Lampung, were also seeking additional quotas.