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.