Jakarta – The Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy recorded 217 incidents involving 329 acts violating freedom of religion and belief (KBB) throughout 2023. This figure is a significant increase compared with the previous year which stood at 175 incidents with 333 violations.
Setara Institute Executive Director Halili Hasan said that out of the 329 violations, as many as 114 of them were committed by state actors and 215 by non-state actors.
"The findings on the number of incidents and violations this year showed a relatively constant figure and again headed towards an increase in incidents as in 2019, when Jokowi [President Joko Widodo] began his second term in office, which posted a figure of 200 incidents with 327 violations of religious freedom and belief", Hasan was quoted as saying from the latest research by the Setara Institute on Sunday June 23.
According to Hasan, the high figure in the category of non-state actors committing KBB violations supports the thesis that there has been a strengthening of the coercive capacity of people in the community. This condition, he explained, at the same time illustrates that the social cornerstone as a buttress for a tolerance ecosystem does not yet fully support respect for KBB.
Meanwhile, out of the 114 violations by state actors, the largest number of violations were carried out by regional governments with 40 violations, the police with 24, Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officials with 10, the Indonesian military (TNI) with eight violations, the Regional Leadership Coordinating Forum (Forkopimda) with six and educational institutions with four.
Violations of KBB by non-state actors meanwhile were mostly committed by citizens with 78 violations, individuals with 19, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) with 17, religious ormas (social or mass organizations) with eight and foreigners (WNA) with five.
If in the previous year the Forum for Religious Harmony (FKUB) was the social component that was one of the main actors, said Hasan, in 2023 the FKUB began to transform itself into an agency that contributes to the advancement of KBB. "This is indicated by the involvement of FKUB in only two violations", he said.
Hasan said that the achievements of the FKUB's transformation cannot be separated from interventions by civil society groups who carried out critical engagement with elements of the FKUB, including advocacy, to ensure FKUB's position as a facilitator, a promoter of tolerance and as a conflict mediator.
Some positive things that can be noted are the transformation of FKUB in several areas including Bogor city, Salatiga city, Gunung Kidul regency, Kulonprogo regency, Singkawang city, Pematangsiantar city and Banjarmasin city.
Worsening trend
In general, there are three things to be highlighted in the state of KBB in 2023. First, the trend of violations in 2023 shows that cases of disturbances of places of worship have experiencing a significant increase over the last seven years. Hasan explained that throughout 2023 there were 65 disturbances of places of worship.
This figure is a quite large when compared to the disturbances that occurred in the last five years, namely 50 places of worship in 2022, 44 places of worship in 2021, 24 places of worship in 2020, 31 places of worship in 2019, 20 places of worship in 2018 and 16 places of worship in 2017.
Out of the 65 places of worship that experienced disturbances in 2023, 40 affected churches, 17 affected mosques, five targeted temples and three affected monasteries.
"The majority of cases rejecting the establishment of places of worship were based on the non-fulfillment or a deviation from the requirements for establishing places of worship as regulated under the Joint Regulations (PBM) of the Minister of Religion and the Minister of Home Affairs Number 9 and Number 8 of 2006, which requires 90 users of a place of worship and 60 supporters from local residents [to establish a place of worship]", said Hasan.
"Meanwhile in other cases, even though these requirements were met, resistance from the local communities continued to occur, so that places of worship were still not given permission to be built", he continued.
Hasan concluded that the findings on disruptions to places of worship shows that establishing a place of worship as stipulated under the joint ministerial decrees is still a trigger for and spurs on violations.
Hassan added that the issue of establishing houses of worship has not even been addressed in the Draft Presidential Regulation on the Preservation of Harmony of Religious Congregations.
"Yet the PBM clearly suffers from nine locus of discrimination so without a breakthrough in political leadership, social leadership, and bureaucratic leadership in tolerance management, it's difficult for Christians and other congregations to establish places of worship", Hasan said.
The trend of violations in 2023 also showed a high use of religious blasphemy offenses. The law on religious blasphemy, which is discriminatory, is still adopted and imposed by law enforcement officials and becomes a tool of submission used by society.
Even though there was a slight decline from 19 cases in 2022 to 15 cases in 2023, the trend in the use of religious blasphemy offences shows that the achievements in guaranteeing of freedom of thought and expression in religious matters is still poor.
Furthermore, intolerance by society and discrimination by the state elements shows that the KBB situation has not experienced any improvement. This indicates that the level of intolerance by society in the 26 violations and acts of discrimination by state elements in the 23 incidents recorded in 2023 is still high.
Victims of violations
Throughout 2023, the Setara Institute recorded that violation against KBB were most commonly experienced by Christians and Catholics (54 incidents), individuals (26 incidents), residents (25 incidents), businesspeople (23 incidents), Ahmadiyah religious congregations (six events) and the Muhammadiyah Islamic mass organisation (10 events).
According to Hasan, the figure for victims of violations categorised by religious group shows a shifting trend of victims that are increasingly easily identified, compared to the previous year where individuals experienced many incidents of violations.
"Christian congregations represented the most victims in various incidents. In fact, Muhammadiyah as one of the large Islamic religious organisations, was also a victim of violations", said Hasan. (ryn/wis)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "SETARA Institute Catat 329 Pelanggaran KBB Sepanjang 2023".]
