Jakarta – The Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy supports the removal of a recommendation from the Forum for Religious Harmony (FKUB) in order to establish a house of worship in Indonesia.
Setara Institute Executive Director Halili Hasan said that it is better if the licensing process for establishing houses of worship is simplified.
"In several annual reports on freedom of religion and belief (KBB), the Setara Institute has encouraged the government to simplify the licensing process for establishing houses of worship", said Hasan in a statement on Saturday August 10.
He explained that currently the licensing process for the establishment of a house of worship is an obstacle, namely the administrative requirement of support from 90 people from the congregation and 60 people from outside the congregation.
"The 90/60 formula clearly hinders the guarantee of the constitutional right to worship which Article 29 Paragraph (2) [of the Constitution] grants to every person or every resident", he said.
Then, with the plan to eliminate the recommendation requirement from the FKUB, the FKUB can optimise its role in building and maintaining religious harmony according to the institutional mandate of harmony between religious communities.
"FKUB must play a more intensive role in expanding education and tolerance campaigns, increasing interfaith meeting spaces, as well as mitigating and resolving conflicts that disrupt interfaith harmony, including mediation and resolution in cases of rejecting people worshiping and the establishment of places and houses of worship", said Hasan.
In the arrangement of diversity and heterogeneity in Indonesia, the Setara Institute believes that the FKUB has not been optimal in preventing and handling violations of KBB, especially disturbances of places of worship in various regions.
In the most recent Setara Institute report on the state of freedom of religion and belief in 2023, Setara found that as many as 65 places of worship experienced disturbances, ranging from the rejection of, restrictions on and prohibitions against the establishment of place of worship, to sealing off places of worship. The number of disturbances increased compared with the previous year.
Moreover if drawn from a longer time spectrum since the Setara Institute first conducted research on freedom of religion and belief (2007-2023), there have been 636 disruptions to worship and places of worship.
These disturbances included the disbandment and rejection of people worshiping, the rejection of places of worship, intimidation, vandalism, arson and so forth.
Setara believes that an institutional transformation of the role of the FKUB is needed, including through a number of recommendations. First, shifting the principle of the FKUB’s membership from the principle of proportionality to the principle of inclusion.
Second, the recruitment of FKUB members in a more open and accountable manner by involving various relevant civil society elements at the local level.
Third, expanding the role of female religious figures in the FKUB with affirmative policies, for example a minimum membership of 30 percent of female religious figures, and other progressive figures.
Earlier, Religious Affairs Minister (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas attracted support and criticism after stating that the establishment of houses of worship in Indonesia in the future would no longer require a recommendation from the FKUB, so it would only require a recommendation from the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag).
Qoumas said the latest regulations on permits for houses of worship, without a recommendation from the FKUB, will soon be signed through a presidential regulation. He added that the change in the regulation has also been agreed to by Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto and Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian.
"There are two recommendations [from the old rules] that must be fulfilled, of course this [still] makes things difficult for all of you, especially when there are many Muslims [in a community] and they're in the majority", said Qoumas at the Bidakara Hotel in South Jakarta last week on Saturday August 3.
Meanwhile, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has said he does not agree that the requirement for establishing a house of worship should no longer require a recommendation from the FKUB.
"Actually, the Minister of Religion should not just scratch things out like that. Because the regulation on the establishment of houses of worship is actually an agreement by religious councils, the agreement was made together with the Ministry of Religion and the Ministry of Home Affairs", said Amin in Bantul regency, Yogyakarta special province (DIY), on Wednesday August 7.
Amin emphasised that the rules for establishing a house of worship did not just happen, but are the result of discussions which were then embodied in the joint ministerial regulations (PBM) by the Minister of Religion and the Minister of Home Affairs Number 9 and Number 8 of 2006. (can/pmg)
- Setara records significant rise in violations against freedom of religion in 2023. CNN Indonesia – June 23, 2024
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was " Setara Institute Dukung Coret FKUB sebagai Syarat Dirikan Rumah Ibadah".]
