Ezra Sihite – For all his rhetoric on the importance of religious pluralism, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has failed to take meaningful action to maintain tolerance in the country, a rights group claims.
The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace said on Monday that cases of religious intolerance in Indonesia had increased steadily from 2007 to 2012.
"Just as in 2011, [this year] SBY preferred to make speeches about tolerance rather than work seriously and meticulously to create a climate of tolerance," Setara Institute deputy chairman Bonar Tigor Naipospos said in Jakarta.
The institute recorded 135 cases of religious intolerance in 2007, 265 cases in 2008, 200 incidents in 2009, 216 in 2010, 244 last year and 264 incidents this year.
"Without the guarantee of religious freedom, tolerance will remain mere political rhetoric from a president who has failed to contribute to human rights progress," Bonar said.
With two years left in its term, the Yudhoyono administration has failed to make any progress in terms of religious tolerance, Setara said. "The SBY regime has clearly chosen the path of political discrimination in regulating religious life since 2011," Bonar said.
Setara said the 264 cases of religious intolerance this year, which included acts of violence against religious minorities or other acts of discrimination such as the banning of religious sects, occurred in 28 of 33 provinces in Indonesia.
West Java experienced the highest number of incidents, with 76 cases this year, followed by East Java with 42 cases, Aceh with 36, Central Java with 30 and South Sulawesi with 17 cases.
Setara added that state officials were involved in 154 of the 264 cases. In some of these incidents, government officials made provocative statements that encouraged or condoned violence and later became the justification for violent acts against religious minorities.
Other cases saw government officials threaten to fire people based on their faith or threaten to close non-Islamic houses of worship. Officials were also complicit in intimidating minority congregations, banning religious sects or their activities, and issuing discriminative policies.