W. Jakarta Mayoralty does U-turn on Muslim attire

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Strong criticism from the public, particularly legal experts, has changed the West Jakarta Mayoralty's stance on its own instruction obliging students in public and private schools to wear Muslim attire on Fridays.

"It was just advice from the mayoralty but definitely not an instruction -- there was no obligation," West Jakarta Deputy Mayor Amiruddin S. Lubis told reporters on Monday before attending a plenary session at the City Council.

His explanation was completely at odds with the mayoralty's letter of instruction that sets out a list of "obligations" and "calls" on elementary schools, as well as junior high and senior high schools, to heed it.

Instruction No. 101/2001 is titled "Activity program to improve faith and belief in God and good behavior in public schools in West Jakarta".

The wearing of Muslim attire and performing of Friday prayers are listed as obligations, while among the calls is visiting the Istiqlal Grand Mosque.

Amiruddin admitted that the requirements had not yet been discussed with the city education agency.

He claimed it was a "bottom-up" idea, only to be applied in West Jakarta.

"But if other mayoralties want to follow us, it's up to them," he said.

Amiruddin denied that the new policy was based on the Jakarta Charter, which obliges Muslims to follow syariah (Islamic law).

"That's politics. We weren't thinking about that," he said.

He said the call to wear Muslim clothes was aimed at making students, especially female ones, wear "polite clothes" instead of the miniskirts that they often wore currently.

Several legal experts objected to the instruction to oblige students to wear Muslim attire as it was unconstitutional and a violation of human rights.

"It is a violation of human rights and also the Constitution, which stipulates that every citizen is free to practice rituals in accordance with his or her religion," lawyer and women's activist Nursjahbani Katjasungkana said earlier.

Human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis also voiced criticism of the mayoralty for intervening in the personal affairs of the nation, which was known for its pluralism.

They doubted that the instruction would achieve its goal of strengthening the moral fiber of students.

Besides lawyers, the students themselves did not believe that the instruction would improve them.

"There's no guarantee, if we wore such attire, that our faith would increase," Ardian, a Muslim student of a public senior high school in West Jakarta, said earlier, adding that it was a discrimination against the non-Muslim students.

Many students, who are Muslim, said that they would feel awkward wearing Muslim attire while their non-Muslim friends wore the conventional school uniform.