Local bank may be guilty of altering haj list
Local bank may be guilty of altering haj list
JAKARTA (JP): The government revealed yesterday that it had
discovered several cases of manipulation, including one of data
alteration by a state-owned bank, in relation to the lucrative
business of sending haj pilgrims to Mecca.
Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher said the
authorities would investigate the state-owned bank which
allegedly altered haj payment data in order to get its customers
out of the pilgrimage waiting list and onto the list of those
definitely bound for Mecca for the Moslem ritual.
"We deplore this bank for manipulating the payment date
information of hundreds of its customers," Tarmizi said
yesterday.
He did not name the bank but said it had intentionally altered
its records of the dates of the customers' haj fee payments so
that their payments appeared to have been made prior to the
official deadline of Feb. 6.
The state-owned banks authorized to receive haj fees are Bank
Negara Indonesia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Exim, Bank Dagang
Negara, and Bank Bumi Daya.
Some 36,000 prospective pilgrims may not be able to go to
Mecca this year because the Saudi Arabian government has set the
quota for Indonesian pilgrims at 195,000, whereas some 231,000
Indonesians have registered.
The would-be pilgrims on the waiting list have started to
become anxious and may be tempted to seek (non-official) ways
make the trip to Mecca, the Antara news agency reported.
The government has repeatedly warned prospective haj pilgrims
against trying to travel on an ordinary green Indonesian
passport, instead of on the brown passport issued especially for
the annual government-organized pilgrimage trip.
On Monday, the government dispatched the secretary general of
the ministry, Zarkowi Soejoeti, to Riyadh on another mission
seeking a higher quota to accommodate all or more of the would be
haj pilgrims.
Tarmizi himself returned empty handed from the first attempt
to negotiate a higher quota, but he said he was still hopeful
that something would turn up before the beginning of the
pilgrimage on April 3.
Earlier, when the number of people registering exceeded the
previous year's quota, the ministry decided that those who paid
the fee in full between Feb. 6-15 were, automatically, put on the
waiting list.
The bank in question devised ways to get hundreds of its
customers off the waiting list and onto the confirmed list,
according to Tarmizi. "The bank did not stop to think that such
manipulation would affect the chances of other prospective
pilgrims to go."
Tarmizi said his office had also discovered other forms of
manipulation, including "haj fee collection".
The ministry found that some people had collected payment from
prospective pilgrims but failed to deposit it promptly and,
instead, used it as business capital.
"When the number of people registering for the haj exceeded
the quota and the government changed the deadline, these people
naturally panicked because they hadn't yet deposited the money,"
Tarmizi said.
While deploring the incidents of manipulation, Tarmizi said he
saw a positive side of the matter. "Flaws in the sending of haj
pilgrims have been exposed for everyone to see," he said.
Tarmizi said that intending pilgrims who had paid the haj fee
in full between Feb. 3 and Feb. 15 would be given priority in the
event that Zarkowi's mission succeeds.
"Let's hope that some of the 36,000 people on the waiting list
can finally go to Mecca," he said.
"The would-be pilgrims should continue to pray for the success
of the government in negotiating for a higher quota," he said.
"And they should be patient if the mission fails and they can't
go on the pilgrimage this year."
Legislators have called on the government to give the
prospective pilgrims on the waiting list first priority next
year.
The local offices of the ministry have been flooded with
inquiries from eager pilgrims demanding to know their precise
status and when their flights will depart. (swe)