Our freedom of religion

Our freedom of religion

Benny Susetyo , Jakarta

An interesting issue that should warrant our curiosity in
relation to the new government is its view on religion and the
problems inherent in it. In this context, many of us are waiting
to see what policies the new religious affairs minister will take
to ensure the protection of religious plurality in Indonesia.

Our experiences show that in this regard, these policies must
at least be focused on a fundamental matter, namely, the
realization of religious practices with a dimension of plurality
within the framework of a unitary state.

It must be borne in mind that our national unity will survive
if religion becomes a spiritual inspiration, not simply an
aspiration. When religion becomes an inspiration, it will
appreciate collective devoutness, not merely individual
devoutness. In this perspective, those professing a different
faith will be viewed as relatives and friends, not foes.

When religion becomes an aspiration, it will tend to view
everything outside its own group as its foes. Friendship will be
made only for formality's sake and will never be deeply rooted in
everyone's mind. As a result, religion has frequently been turned
into an issue used to despise other groups. Plurality is hardly
appreciated when religion is viewed only as an aspiration that
one must fight for. When it is construed as an aspiration,
religion will be dragged into the political domain and agenda.

It is in this context that the policies of the Ministry of
Religious Affairs should be focused on how to strengthen
religious plurality in Indonesia. It must, at least, be
increasingly stressed that the orientation of the religious
affairs ministry is to serve as a communication link for various
religious institutions. This means that the government assigns
itself the job of mediator for existing religious institutions
and will not intervene in these institutions. In the future,
therefore, the ministry must focus itself more on drawing up
policies that will make religious followers more mature and
prevent them from taking the law into their own hands or
demonstrating an arrogant and overbearing attitude.

It is only to be expected that the ministry should be able to
foster the values of humanity, unity and justice. Religious
followers must make these values their common reference in
establishing a new world order. Only when the government ensures
that its policies are nondiscriminatory can this new world order
come into being.

It follows, then, that the central role that the ministry can
play will be to encourage Indonesians to better understand their
religions authentically. For this purpose, the ministry must be
able to take a neutral stance and stay away from religious
differences.

The differences that are found in society must be well managed
by developing multicultural education. The idea is that the
ministry must start changing its paradigm as "a regulator of
religions" into that of a "religious communicator."

In carrying out all these tasks, some things must be looked
into.

First, the ministry should serve the public. In this sense,
this ministry must be able to take care of public interests, not
just the interests of a particular religion or group. Public
interests concern the right to perform a religious service and
profess one's faith. If problems arise that will disrupt
interfaith relations, the ministry must serve as the mediator for
the conflicting parties and must never come in defense of a
particular group.

Second, it is necessary for the ministry to stay away from any
particular political interests. The policies that this ministry
draws up must reflect the notion of "unity in diversity".

Third, it is expected that the ministry can develop
communication with other religious institutions in Indonesia.
Continuous communication will be very helpful to build mutual
trust in religious practices in Indonesia.

Fourth, it is also expected that the religious affairs
ministry can develop multicultural education in various studies
about the practice of plurality in Indonesia. This is a very
clear task indeed because a religious education that respects
plurality must be oriented toward the value of togetherness as a
nation.

Fifth, it is expected that the religious affairs ministry must
adopt a more transparent attitude in issuing various policies
concerned with the lives of religious followers. It is now the
time to replace exclusiveness and "hide-and-seek" practices with
transparency, tolerance, honesty and justice. It is obvious that
every policy that the religious affairs ministry draws up should
be known by the people as a whole and should involve them.
Otherwise, the impact that these policies will exert will always
be worse than expected and will always be detrimental to a
particular group.

Finally it is expected that we should not be trapped in
individual cases but should be concerned with the substance of
these case, which is none other than how we translate Pancasila
into reality consistently, with a particular emphasis on the
value of the principle of "Belief in One Supreme God", as a
reference in our endeavor to inculcate the values of humanity and
justice on our minds.

Once again, religion should never be used as a means to
accommodate our aspirations. Instead, it is a means for spiritual
inspiration in building solidarity and humanity. It is this
authentic religious orientation that must serve as a foundation
on which our religiosity will be put in order.

The writer is executive secretary of Interfaith and Belief
Commission of the Indonesian Conference of Bishops (KWI).