New haj registration disfavors rural folks
New haj registration disfavors rural folks
JAKARTA (JP): The government's new computerized haj registration system has one major flaw -- it discriminates against the rural people.
This was disclosed during a House of Representatives hearing with officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on Wednesday.
Some House representatives said that many of their constituents in the rural areas were denied admission to take part in next year's haj pilgrimage because their areas were not "on-line" with the computerized registration system.
The government introduced the new system for the first time this year in the hope of preventing the chaos and overbooking that has characterized registrations in previous years.
Under the new system, applicants are registered on a first- come-first-serve basis.
They are required to register and pay the full fees at the local branches of one of the seven government-owned banks appointed to handle the registration. The seven are Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank BNI 1946, Bapindo, Bank Tabungan Negara, Bank Ekspor-Impor Indonesia, Bank Bumi Daya and Bank Dagang Negara.
But many bank branches in remote rural areas are not connected with the computer data base of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which coordinates the pilgrim's departures.
According to House members, many applications were rejected because they arrived late.
The government closed the registration for next year's pilgrimage in September, when the number of applications reached 195,000, the quota set by the Saudi government for Indonesian pilgrims.
Director General for Islamic and Haj Affairs Amidhan, who represented Minister of Religion Affairs Tarmizi Taher at the hearing, acknowledged the weakness in the system. "Many banks in rural areas still use the manual system," he added.
He explained that the system, which has eliminated overbooking problems of the past, could still be improved by allocating quotas to each province as one possibility.
"The idea must be further discussed with the minister," he said. Tarmizi is scheduled to have a hearing with the commission early next month.
Amidhan explained that the quota for the 1996 pilgrimage has already been met and includes the 40,720 places given to applicants who were denied admission this year because of overbooking.
The government, which coordinates the travel arrangements for all pilgrims from Indonesia, has set the fee for 1996 at Rp 7.29 million (US$3,230), three percent higher than the fee set for 1995. (01)