Being Religious Minority in Indonesia

I’ve been keeping tracks on reports of religious violence towards minority groups in Indonesia for several years now. I follow them for several reasons. First is because of my human rights background, which means I am automatically interested in human rights issues, and religious freedom is obviously a human rights issue. Second, and no less important than the first one, is because this is personal for me. I am not a religious person. I don’t go to church that often, but to celebrate major events, and sometimes I even question my belief. However, I still consider myself as a member of a religious group – Christianity, which in Indonesia is considered minority. My family and some of my friends are Christians. That is why the plights of Christian people in this country affect me, more or less.

Looking at all the cases of the last few years, I have to say that I am really unhappy with the state of religious freedom in Indonesia. There seems to be a rise in intolerance (I prefer not to say a rise in radicalism here because I don’t think that all people who reject the rights of non-Moslems to worship are radicals, but they are certainly intolerant). We have cases of violence against minority groups, mass demonstrations to close house of worships, abuses, and so on.  There were even people killed because of their belief (see here).  

All these cases have created a certain feeling of abandonment in me. It feels like we are slowly being evicted out of our country, like we are no longer wanted. Even more unsettling is the fact that the government seems to not do much to prevent all those cases to happen. There is a growing perception amongst the minority groups that we are left to fend this on our own, that they do not really care whether we can worship the way we please or our way of life is being threatened. Add to that is the fact that it seems sometimes the government even take an active role in fanning the flames of these groups – these intolerant groups who want nothing else but the expulsion of all minorities out of Indonesia.

Take for example the latest case of the church HKBP Filadelfia, in Tambun, Bekasi. The local Bekasi government refused to obey the ruling by the High Court that says that the church Filadelfia should be allowed to continue its activities, repealing the local government edict of 2009 that banned the church to continue its worship service.  Somehow the case reminds me of similar unresolved case in Bogor of GKI Yasmin. In that case, the local Bogor government, refused to obey the ruling of the Supreme Court that allows GKI Yasmin congregation to continue worshiping in their building.

There are other similarities between the two cases. One, the two cases saw the active efforts by the local government, after getting pressures from several ‘religious’ groups, to stop a local church to continue its service. Two, in both cases, the central government, the one with the mandate to uphold the constitution, the rule of law and the protection of the human rights of all its citizens,  refuses to intervene. The central government chooses to ignore the matter, citing that the issue is of local concerns, forgetting that they have the responsibility to uphold the law and to protect their citizens. Three, there are thugs involved - 'religious' thugs. They block people to come to church. They hurl abuses and insults towards the members of the congregations, even throwing stuffs (there are reports of people throwing pee in bottles). 

Indonesian government claims itself as a democratic country. Apparently, their brand of democracy is closer to the ‘tyranny of majority’ rather than a true democracy, at least for now. Cases of religious intolerance, even violence, where the police and government refuse to do anything about it, seem to confirm this. I am always hopeful for the future of Indonesia, and I do love this country. However, I am worried that, unless decisive steps are taken soon, more and more Indonesian minorities will feel isolated, abandoned and left out; even feel discriminated. That may not bode well for our future. 

see these links for further info: 

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/religious-groups-criticize-government-for-weak-support-of-religious-freedom/519144

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-OLT-009-2012#.T7n60jUiqO8.facebook

Is Indonesia a Democracy?

Democracy is a very difficult term. A simple definition of democracy is ‘the government by the people, of the people, and for the people’. An even simpler definition of democracy is ‘the rule of the majority’. Using these definitions, it seems almost certain that Indonesia is a functioning democracy. After all, it has all the mechanisms to ensure that the voice of the majority will be heard in (and influence) decision-making process. Election is one; clear separation and distribution of power is another. Maybe we can also add mass protest as one existing mechanism of democracy - by that definition - in Indonesia.

However, I do not think that democracy is only about the will of the majority. Many social movements in history – the seeds of democracy – concerned themselves about giving voice to the voiceless. Thus the first labor movement concerned themselves of giving rights to laborers who previously did not have rights, and the original women suffrage movement struggled to give women the rights that they previously did not enjoy, and so on. These movements and struggles would later on influence the way democracy is supposed to be done. They provide the contemporary democracy with one additional important defining characteristic: true democracy protects the rights of everyone and extends it even to anyone who was not protected before, regardless whether they are part of the majority or not.

From this point of view then we can start to question whether Indonesia is a truly functioning democracy or not. Because it seems that democracy in Indonesia only works in the first sense: to obey the rule of the majority, but it stutters when it wants to enter the next level of democracy: the protection of everyone’s rights, which includes minorities and the disenfranchised (religious minorities, persons with disabilities, homosexuals, etc).  Cases of religious intolerance, lack of access of persons with disabilities, violence towards homosexuals, and others, seem to highlight this reality of Indonesia’s democracy.  Before we can give protection and guarantee the rights of these groups, I think it is still a long way to go before we can safely say that we are a democratic country.

Yet I do think that Indonesia still has some hopes. For one thing, change is brewing. Economy is improving, and with that comes a better connection to (and understanding of) the outside world and, at the same time, of our inner self. People are beginning to challenge old and outdated beliefs, and are more willing to be a little bit more tolerant to differences in taste, in style, in preference, in opinion, and in political beliefs.  Indonesia has a long history of tolerance (although at the same time it has a long history of intolerance as well), and we can dig and focus on these long traditions to be used as a foundation to extend and expand human rights protection. To extend means to give rights protection to more groups, to expand means to enlarge the scope of rights we are currently enjoying. When this happens, then we can proudly say that Indonesia is a democratic country.