Norimitsu Onishi, Indonesia – As the nation with the world's largest number of Muslims, Indonesia every year sends the most pilgrims to Mecca by far. In fact, about one out of 10 believers who performed the hajj last year was Indonesian.
Some 1.2 million of the faithful are now on a government waiting list to go to Mecca, filling this country's annual quota through the next six years. But if the rapidly lengthening list is a testament to the nation's growing devotion, it has also become a source of one of its perennial problems: corruption.
According to government investigators and anticorruption groups, state officials and politicians misuse the money deposited by those on the waiting list – now totaling nearly $2.1 billion. With travel agents and business cronies, officials exploit the myriad requirements of the state-run hajj to fatten their own pockets, watchdog groups say. Corruption, they say, has contributed to consistent complaints about cramped accommodations for pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and catering services that stop delivering midway through the trip.
The House of Representatives and officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs recently settled on the price of this year's hajj after unusually protracted negotiations and accusations, widely reported in the media, that some lawmakers and bureaucrats had agreed to share $2.8 million in bribes from the ministry. The annual negotiations are used by veteran bureaucrats and lawmakers to hammer out personal deals, according to anticorruption groups and media, which have labeled them the "hajj mafia."
"We can't prove the existence of the hajj mafia yet," said Muhammad Baghowi, a lawmaker who was elected last year and sits on a legislative commission that oversees religious affairs. "But given all the indications, you can really sense it."
House leaders and ministry officials have denied the bribery accusations. Abdul Ghafur Djawahir, a high-ranking official at the ministry's hajj division, said anticorruption groups had misinterpreted the ministry's procedures and handling of the deposit money. He said they had also wrongly evaluated the costs of flights to Saudi Arabia and unfairly compared Indonesia's hajj management with that of Malaysia, where pilgrims reportedly pay less and get better service.
"That's what, in the end, forms the public's opinion that there is huge corruption here," Djawahir said, adding that there was "no hajj mafia" and that the ministry was "completely clean."
Ministry officials and lawmakers pointed out that the price for this year's hajj, which is scheduled for mid-November, had been lowered by $80 to $3,342, compared with last year. But anticorruption groups argue that without graft and mismanagement the cost would be several hundred dollars lower.
Despite the convictions in 2006 of ministry officials, including a former minister, for misusing hajj funds and bribing state auditors to validate the ministry's accounts, anticorruption advocates say that little has changed.
According to Indonesia Corruption Watch, in the deal-making between the ministry and legislature, lawmakers win hefty allowances on hajj trips for themselves and their relatives, and travel agencies and other businesses with political ties are handed contracts for catering or transportation. In return, lawmakers do not question the ministry's handling of the $2.4 billion in deposits, especially the accrued interest.
"What the money is used for, we never know," said Ade Irawan, a researcher at ICW, the country's leading private anticorruption organization. "That's the people's money, public money, the pilgrims' money."
The Indonesian Pilgrims Rabithah (RHI), a private group that has long pressed for reform of the hajj management, said the ministry and lawmakers negotiated away from public forums to keep their deals hidden.
"There is never any public accountability," said Ade Marfuddin, the organization's chairman, adding, "No one knows who gets what except them."
In a recent report, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the government's main anticorruption law-enforcement agency, identified 48 practices in hajj management that could lead to corruption. Mochammad Jasin, a deputy chairman of the commission, said the KPK would wait to see whether the ministry carried out suggested reforms before considering a full-fledged investigation into possible wrongdoing.
According to quotas established by Saudi authorities, 211,000 Indonesians will be allowed to go to Mecca this year. About 17,000 of them will go on private tours costing several times the state-run package of $3,342 – a sum that often entails a lifetime of savings and the sale of property or livestock.
Unable to afford the state-run hajj, Arif Supardi, 53, entered Saudi Arabia on a business visa shortly before the hajj a couple of years ago. (The Saudi government estimated that 30 percent of the 2.5 million pilgrims last year went to Mecca without valid permits.) He said he managed to complete his pilgrimage for $2,000 by becoming what he and others called "hajj backpackers". "There were many from Indonesia," he said.
Prospective pilgrims must now deposit $2,500 to register for the hajj, effectively lending the ministry that amount until their turn to go on the hajj comes up six years later. According to the religious ministry, between 15,000 and 20,000 people register every month. Interest in performing the hajj, a pilgrimage that is an obligation for any physically and financially able Muslim adult, has risen in the past decade as Indonesians have grown wealthier and increasingly given Islam an important place in their lives.
Achmad Fachin, 50, who sold his family car to go to Mecca with his wife, said he did not complain during their hajj but has grown angry about the corruption. "They'll have to take responsibility for whatever they do. We were performing our religious duty and paid the fees with sincerity," he said.