Sang Timur affair exposes government discrimination

Pandaya, Jakarta

In recent years Indonesia has sadly been witnessing a wide variety of religious conflicts that have corroded the glue that keeps this multiethnic, multireligious nation together.

Sectarian flare-ups have been occurring throughout the archipelago at higher frequency and magnitude. One major shock came in 1996 with the burning of churches in Situbondo, East Java. A few years later we were hit with the deadly Muslim- Christian conflicts in Maluku and Sulawesi. On Christmas Eve 2000, over a dozen churches in almost all major cities were simultaneously bombed, killing many of the Christian worshipers inside.

This year, the increasingly volatile interreligious relationships have again been put to the test with the forced closure of a church at the Sang Timur Catholic school and the subsequent blockage of the school by a group of local Islamists in Karang Tengah, Tangerang, just outside Jakarta.

The incident, right on the capital's doorstep, following the revocation of the official permit to use the premises for worship services, has provoked quite a lot of heated debate on the freedom of religion as guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

This time the government can no longer sweep the discord under the carpet and pretend nothing serious happened, because the media has exposed it.

While the problem remains unresolved, (a concrete wall erected by Muslims, is still in place, and 9,000 Catholics have nowhere to worship) people wonder if religious tolerance will ever become something of the past.

The Sang Timur incident, in which members of the Islamic Youth Front of Karang Tengah forcibly broke up Sunday mass on Oct. 3 and demanded the services be stopped for good, was an ugly display of religious discrimination, in which the majority bullies the minority and the state just lets it happen.

The local Muslim residents appointed themselves the sheriff on the pretext that they were legally enforcing the disputed 1969 joint ministerial decree that requires local residents' endorsement whenever a place of worship is to be built.

The decree, which the new Minister of Religious Affairs M. Maftuh Basyuni insists on maintaining, remains in force despite fierce opposition from religious minorities. Under the ruling, it is practically impossible for the minority to build a place of worship in the midst of the majority. This ruling also applies in areas where Muslims are the minority, such as predominantly Christian Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sumatra, North Sulawesi and predominantly Hindu Bali.

Obviously, the decree treats the followers of the majority religion, in any particular area, like a spoiled brat who can do anything they wish, no matter if what they do in fact gives their own religion a bad name. Imagine how chaotic Indonesia could be if Hindus in Bali or Christians in Manado -- both in the majority -- did the same thing at a mosque or a pesantren?

In Jakarta, Christians bear the brunt of the discrimination and threats of violence: Building a church is practically impossible, but they are subject to harassment, or even violence, if they worship elsewhere. Likewise in Papua, the minority Muslims find it difficult to get the locals' endorsement for a mosque.

The Sang Timur affair only gives credence to the fear of Islamic extremism that finds fertile ground with the rise of "political Islam" in this era of political reform. Since the fall of strongman Soeharto in 1998, those promoting sharia as the state ideology have come out in the open without fear of persecution. Along with them came the extremist groups like FPI (Islam Defenders Front) cashing in on weak law enforcement and taking the law into their hands in the name of religion.

Again, the Sang Timur affair is a case that illustrates how the government becomes part of the problem when there is religious tension. The revocation of the permit to use the school's hall for worship, after 12 years of letting them do it, serves as a bad example of public policy making. It clearly smacks of systematic discrimination against the minority and reduces the government's assurances of respecting pluralism to cheap, empty slogans. Above all, such a forced closure of a place of worship is not only against the Constitution, but also a blatant abuse of human rights.

The bizarre policies that have provoked the problem also proves that state intervention in religious affairs often ends up in disaster because such policies, alienates the minority and solves problems in favor of the majority.

While the joint ministerial decree continues to stir up dangerous religious sentiment, another debate has been brewing over a bill on "religious harmony" drafted by the ministry of religious affairs during the Megawati regime. Academics have warned that if the bill eventually became law, the discrimination would be more institutionalized and sectarian conflicts would only worsen.

All the conflicts that come with the weakening religious tolerance would endanger the international recognition of Indonesia's reputation as a place to learn religious harmony.

The religious tensions call for intensive interfaith dialogs which involve people at the grassroots level, where open conflicts start. The hard work of institutions like the Center for Peaceful Religious Coexistence (PKUB), the religious ministry and Interfidei has not yet reached the masses.

The lack of tolerance and mutual understanding has given rise to suspicions that any initiative by either side would have "Christianization" or "Islamization" motives.

The Sang Timur affair is the first actual case for the new administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to handle and prove his commitment to protecting pluralism in Indonesia. SBY's stand is yet to be seen -- an interventionist or facilitator.

The author is a staff writer for The Jakarta Post.