Minority rights in Indonesia's multi-religious society

Minority rights in Indonesia's multi-religious society

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung

Numerical strength does not define human dignity. Being a
member of a majority or minority group in society is not a
relevant factor to qualify one as a legitimate carrier of demand
for social justice and political equality. However, politics
sometimes can be a dehumanizing force in the sense that it
determines whether basic rights are respected or denied.

The existence of the minority groups in Indonesian society is
a fact of life and cannot be wished away. Nor should their
presence necessarily be an obstacle to the creation of a
harmonious and peaceful society. What is unique about Indonesian
society is that the label, minority, can be applied to any
religious or ethnic group. This is due to the fact that the
geographical distribution of our population is such that the
minority groups exist everywhere.

For instance, the Christians are a minority in West Java where
most of the population are Muslims. At the same time, the Muslims
are a minority in Bali where Hinduism dominates or in Flores
where Catholicism has an overwhelming number of followers.

Unfortunately, our constitutional system only provides general
stipulations on the protection of the basic rights of the
minority groups. The basic rights of the citizens such as freedom
of speech, assembly and religion are only mentioned in general
terms with the effect that there exists space for the
politicization of the minority rights by the ruling elite. The
absence of clear and unambiguous constitutional stipulations on
the minority rights led to the establishment of a joint
ministerial decree in 1969 which regulated the procedures of
building house of worship.

The decree was a spontaneous and ad hoc response of the New
Order regime to a particular situation in the late 1960s. It is a
pity that the current democratic government still relies on that
decree for regulating such an important issue like inter-
religious harmony in society.

It was a normal practice during the New Order regime to use
religion as a tool to achieve certain secular objectives. The
ruling power did not hesitate to pit one religious group against
the other just to strengthen its position. On certain occasion
the tactics of scapegoating the minority groups was used to
divert public attention from the inability of the government to
solve social and economic problems.

The marginalization of religious and ethnic minorities is a
common phenomenon in various parts of Southeast Asia. For
instance, the current intra-state conflicts in Southern Thailand,
Southern Philippines and Myanmar are to some extent caused by the
discriminatory and repressive policies of their respective
governments. If the national government fails to protect the
basic rights of these people, where else can these minority
groups seek to find justice and security?

The 1992 UN declaration on the rights of minorities clearly
states that: "Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious
and linguistic minorities have the right to enjoy their own
culture, to profess and practice their own religion and to use
their own language, in private and in public, freely and without
interference or any form of discrimination" (David Beetham,
2000).

Europe has always been a model for a wide-ranging regional
human rights. Individual citizens of member states of the
European Council of Human Rights have the right to appeal against
their domestic courts. Unfortunately, an effective regional human
rights regime in Southeast Asia does not exist. To make things
worse, ASEAN's principle of non-interference has led the
respective governments to remain indifferent toward gross
violations of human rights anywhere in the region.

The good news is that the transnational networks of human
rights groups in this region are quite extensive and active in
promoting the rights of the people, regardless of their religion
or ethnicity. But, of course, they alone cannot solve the
structural problems of human rights violations. Each government
in Southeast Asia must be responsible about protecting the basic
rights of its citizens whether they belong to the majority or
minority groups.

The writer is the head of the department of international
relations at Parahyangan University in Bandung. He can be reached
at aleks@home.unpar.ac.id.