Hera Diani – The heat was excruciating as the first batch of hajj pilgrims entered the transit dormitory in East Jakarta a day before their flight to Saudi Arabia on Oct. 23. But the pilgrims, mostly of retirement age, welcomed the heat, joking that it would prepare them for the harsh desert climate in Mecca.
They were generally joyful, some having waited decades for their turn to go on the hajj, whose participants are limited by both money and a yearly quota from the Saudi Arabian government.
"We have saved up our money for years, and our four children also chipped in. We signed up for the pilgrimage in 2007 and finally got our turn to go this year," said Ratna Farida, 61, a retired teacher from Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta. Together with her husband Asri Munir, 70, they purchased the regular hajj package for Rp 35 million ($3,675) each.
A total of 207,000 Indonesians will do the hajj pilgrimage this year, around the same as in 2008. They are divided into 470 groups bound for Jeddah, where most spend a month performing the hajj ritual, with the last group expected home in late November.
First-timers Ratna and Asri said they were content with the organization and service as they prepared to embark, but others who were going for a second time said they were confused by the Ministry of Religious Affairs' management of the pilgrimage.
Yani Yahya, 61, said new regulations requiring pilgrims to have an official international passport, rather than a one-time-only special hajj passport, had forced her to make repeated trips to her local immigration office to process paperwork.
"There is no information available either, unless you're very proactive. Back in 2003, all we had to do was sit at home and wait for the instructions and passport to arrive," said Yani, a widow traveling by herself.
Another veteran pilgrim, Ahmad Golyobi, 58, was also upset, saying that procedures such as the registration process were lengthy and bureaucratic.
"Also, the ministry organizers distributed the book of prayers, which is not available freely, only after we finished the manasik (hajj rehearsal). There were 14 meetings for the manasik and they only gave us [the book] when it was already finished," he said.
"How can we memorize all the prayers if there is no book? The government cannot even manage a very simple thing like that," Ahmad said.
But both Yani and Ahmad, as with many pilgrims, accept the flaws as a test from God, saying that the spiritual journey is a lesson in shedding one's ego. Others are not so forgiving.
Complaints, complaints
For years, the hajj management has been a lightning rod for criticism, mostly that it's unprofessional, not transparent and prone to corruption. Every year, Indonesia sends hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, and problems invariably arise, mostly relating to housing, transportation and catering.
Many pilgrims are placed in lodgings far away from places of worship, and often waste hours waiting around for transportation. The catering also leaves a lot to be desired. One pilgrim said that when she went in 2005, the meals were the same every day: rice and string beans.
During the hajj between December 2006 and January 2007, the pilgrims' rituals were disrupted when a local caterer stopped delivering meals after officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs tried to bargain down the catering bill. More than 3,000 pilgrims were forced to live off dates and instant noodles for several days. Some of them fainted due to inadequate food intake.
Dissatisfied customers compare the treatment of Indonesian pilgrims to those from Malaysia, who pay a similar amount for the hajj package but receive much better service. They are placed in better lodgings close to worship sites, receive better meals and transportation and even get a refund if the cost of the hajj ends up being cheaper than what they initially paid.
New problems for pilgrims have emerged this year, including delays in passports, being forced to pay for free-of-charge vaccines and luggage and more housing issues.
It has been discovered that around 260 out of 407 lodging sites booked for pilgrims have, as of Nov. 1, been unable to pass a new Saudi Arabian safety audit concerning the lack of emergency stairwells. As a result, 6,000 pilgrims risk being forced to lodge in houses even further away from places of worship.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs down plays the problems. "Don't worry, we'll sort this out. Every pilgrim will be placed in decent housing. If the places are far away and cheaper, we will return the margin," said Abdul Ghafur Djawahir, director of administration for the hajj.
Legislator Said Abdullah, a member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs, said the new Saudi housing regulation was announced in June 2008, but the Ministry of Religious Affairs failed to react.
"The government doesn't plan well. They never think of a Plan B," said Said, a harsh critic of hajj management.
Then there's the allegations of corruption. In July, Indonesia Corruption Watch released a report saying the ministry may have inflated the actual cost of the 2009 pilgrimage by around $700 per person.
It submitted the report to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which in early November sent a three-person team to Saudi Arabia to monitor hajj management. The KPK has already identified a number of irregularities, including unexpected fees and higher lodging costs. The ministry denies the accusations by ICW, saying its calculations are different than theirs.
"Besides, people aren't aware of the many indirect costs for the hajj, such as airport tax, the salaries of staff serving the pilgrims, and so on," Ghafur claimed. "And while flights are cheaper... [closer and higher quality] accommodation means that the costs for each pilgrim had to be increased."
Nonetheless, there's no denying that the ministry has been beset by irregularities. In 2006, former Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Hussein Al Munawar and hajj director general Taufiq Kamil were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for embezzling more than Rp 75 billion in pilgrimage funds between 2001 and 2004. Both have since been paroled.
Also in 2006, ICW reported the Religious Affairs Ministry to the KPK for allegedly misusing money from a hajj fund, including for travel allowances for members of House Commission VIII for law and legislation, and transport allowances for a House working committee. The group had previously reported the ministry to the KPK for discrepancies involving payments to then-minister Maftuh Basyuni.
Ade Irawan of ICW said the allegations against Basyuni were similar to those that landed Munawar in prison, and that the KPK was still investigating its reports.
What needs to be fixed?
Ghafur said it was not easy organizing 200,000 pilgrims every year, sorting out lodging and transportation and competing with other countries to get the most convenient housing.
"Although we are the largest pilgrim group in the world, we don't get any privileges. If we did, then other countries would also ask for them," he said.
He went on to blame the Saudi government for frequently changing hajj regulations, such as airport service fees, the new passport requirement and most recently housing safety regulations.
Lawmaker Abdul Kadir Karding, the head of House Commission VIII, said the government seemed to lack diplomatic skills in lobbying the Saudi government about hajj-related problems, despite seemingly to have a strong bargaining position.
"Why isn't there more permanent housing, like renting for 10 years, for example, which should decrease the housing problems pilgrims experience almost every year?" Karding said.
Then there was the transparency issue. Abdullah said the handling of hajj payments was unfair, such as the requirement that pilgrims pay a Rp 20 million deposit to be placed on the waiting list. This money can sit in an interest-bearing bank account for up to five years while the pilgrim awaits his turn.
"There are trillions of rupiah, and 80 percent of the interest earned is used to pay government staff who handle the pilgrimage, to pay for their uniforms, salary and so on. Why should the pilgrims also pay for those costs?" Abdullah said. "When we ask the ministry about this, they never give us a clear answer," he said, adding that the House was not given sufficient access to monitor the hajj management.
Firdaus Ilyas, ICW's coordinator for central data and analysis, said the Religious Affairs Ministry leaves itself at the mercy of its business partners for the hajj, such as Garuda Indonesia Airlines, which is the sole carrier of Indonesian pilgrims.
"In terms of accommodation and catering, the chain of business that needs to be dealt with is long, making the whole process expensive. The ministry lacks professionalism and a good system," he said.
He added that the Law on Hajj Pilgrimage Management was too technical and did not clearly outline pilgrims' rights. Said wanted to see the central government establish an independent and professional hajj financial institution, rather than leaving it to a ministry.
"Since the Saudi government only wants to deal with governments, then the government can focus on handling the diplomacy, while everything else can be processed by the institution."
Meanwhile, Sudaryatmo, a member of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, questioned why the central government was even involved in organizing and managing the hajj given that Indonesia isn't an Islamic country.
"They shouldn't be pushing the doctrine that the pilgrimage is a time to shed one's ego and that pilgrims must be patient. It makes consumers reluctant to complain, for fear it will reduce the value of their religious service," he said.