Opening of haj season hits snags in some regions
Opening of haj season hits snags in some regions
JAKARTA (JP): The flights taking the first groups of the 194,000 Indonesian pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, are scheduled to leave this morning from appointed airports in Jakarta, Surabaya, Ujungpandang, Medan and Balikpapan.
Unlike previous annual operations of flying out the pilgrims, this year's season won't be opened with a solemn ceremony led by senior government officials aboard the first jet to leave from Jakarta.
Instead, the Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher bid farewell to the pilgrims in a televised speech last night.
The tradition was scrapped in order to spare the pilgrims more exhaustion, according to H.M. Shodiq Wiryowijoyo, the head of ministry's legal and public relations bureau.
This year's pilgrims will leave on 453 flights. The season will climax on Idul Adha (Sacrifice Day) on April 28. The operation to bring the pilgrims home will last from May 2 to May 30.
Meanwhile, problems have started to occur in various regions. Hundreds of angry prospective pilgrims flocked to a number of religious affairs offices yesterday because they have not received all the necessary documents.
In Pekalongan, Central Java, 143 prospective pilgrims complained that they have not received visas, despite the fact that some of them were scheduled to leave this morning.
Antara reported that officials were also at a loss as to what to do. The office in Pekalongan had to calm the protesters down while officials in the provincial capital Semarang struggled to obtain the visas from the office of the religious affairs ministry in Jakarta.
A total of 337 Pekalongan residents have registered to go on the pilgrimage, but only 194 have so far received visas.
In Jakarta, hundreds of enraged people went to the local religious affairs offices on Thursday, demanding documents which would allow them to enter the haj dormitory.
Pilgrims are required to spend one day in the dormitory before they leave.
The protesting pilgrims registered individually. They claimed that other prospective pilgrims, who registered in groups, have already received the necessary documents.
An official at the South Jakarta office of the religious affairs ministry said he could not issue the documents because the prospective pilgrims have not yet been given their visas.
The ministry has ruled that only those with visas are allowed to enter the dormitory.
Last year the haj operation turned to chaos when many people who had been booked on the first flights failed to leave because they had no visas, creating massive congestion at the embarkation airports.
Shodiq said the ministry would complete the processing of visas on Friday at the latest. "Don't worry, everybody will have a visa," he promised. (01/18)