Haula Noor and A'an Suryana – Religious intolerance against minority faiths is a thorn in the body politic of Indonesia that each president has not been able to fully extract. It does not help when local officials confuse or overstep the bounds of their authority.
On the management of religious freedom in Indonesia, this essay contends that the Joko Widodo government (2014-2024) performed better than the preceding administration, under former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but intolerance against minority faiths was a weak spot. During Yudhoyono's watch (2004-2014), state apparatuses at the national and local levels were often given the leeway to harm minority religious communities. In that period, state-sponsored Islamic sharia bylaws that curtailed the religious freedom of minority faiths mushroomed in several regions. When handling inter-faith disputes, the state apparatuses often referred to intolerant religious edicts (fatwa) released by the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI).
Concerns about the Indonesian state's commitment to the Constitution to uphold pluralism arose during the Yudhoyono era, with suggestions that the government was complicit in perpetuating religious division by siding with intolerant groups. On 26 August 2012, some 500 Sunni Muslims attacked a Shi'a neighbourhood in Sampang regency, East Java, resulting in one Shi'a person killed, 14 people injured, and 50 houses destroyed. In 2013, local officials forcibly relocated Muslim Shi'a adherents in Sampang to avoid clashes with Sunni mobs, instead of protecting their religious rights. (Shi'a is a branch of Islam and its adherents are a minority in predominantly Sunni Indonesia.)
The situation seemed better under Widodo's leadership but religious intolerance remained a concern. On 20 September 2024, the People's Representative Council (DPRD II) of Parepare, South Sulawesi, caved in to local residents and Islamic groups' demands that the construction of a Gamaliel Christian school be stopped. This decision was foreshadowed after a September 2023 protest by the same constituency, including members of the banned Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI). They incorrectly claimed that the school had not obtained a permit and that it would be built in a homogeneous Muslim neighbourhood.
The school chain's attorney, Rachmat S. Lulung, argued that the construction process had followed all the requirements, including obtaining a Building Permit Approval (Persetujuan Bangunan Gedung, or PBG) and recommendations from the local departments of Education, and Public Works and Spatial Planning, in July 2023.
Despite the legality of the project, Parepare councillors ordered the Public Order Agency (Satuan Polisi Pamong Praja, Satpol PP) to halt the construction project. Ibrahim Suanda, Chairperson of Working Group III in the Parepare DPRD, claimed that this decision was based on the result of a hearing on 20 September with various community elements, including the Parepare Muslim Community Forum (Forum Masyarakat Muslim Parepare, FMMP).
The above example highlights the persistence of religious intolerance at the local level, despite efforts at reform. One reform the Widodo administration did implement, however, was a flagship programme on Religious Moderation, in 2018. Managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, this programme became part of the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024, and advocates the protection of minority groups' rights within society, supporting the stance that these rights carry equal legal weight as those of the majority.
This incident also raises concerns about the state's impartiality and commitment to upholding pluralism beyond rhetoric. This is especially when the local office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Parepare City appears unaccountable. Four days after the initial protests against the school's construction in 2023, the head of this office stated that the incident was an "administrative" issue rather than a religious one, thus suggesting that the incident fell outside the religious ministry's jurisdiction. The decision of the Parepare DPRD was based on its hearing of the views of just one side of the debate. Arguably, the DPRD's functions should be limited to oversight, legislative actions, and budgeting, while it can provide a recommendation to the local government (Pemerintah Daerah, Pemda) which respects the latter's executive capacity. The revocation of the school's permit should be the local government's task, since it issued the permit.
Similar incidents have affected Muslims in areas where they are a minority. For example, in 2018, the local government and legislative council in Manokwari, West Papua, a predominantly Christian city, approved a bylaw banning all religious adherents other than Christians "from doing activities every Sunday". This regulation negatively impacted Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Christians who wished to practice their religion or organise public religious events on Sunday.
The state's complicity in religious intolerance lies in political and security motivations. Local councillors in Indonesia, including in Pare-Pare and Manokwari, often succumbed to political pressures from local residents. In the Pare-Pare case, a local councillor decided to fight against the construction of the Christian school after protests by local residents. In yet other cases, state security apparatuses prioritised public security over human rights, as seen in the eviction of Shi'a Muslims.
State complicity in religious intolerance remained a persistent issue under the Widodo administration. Indonesia's next president, Prabowo Subianto, can perhaps improve the situation by establishing a new and independent state institution that could investigate, penalise, and prevent future intolerant practices against any minority faith across the archipelago.
[Haula Noor is a Visiting Fellow in the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, a lecturer at the Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), and a researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) UIN Jakarta. A'an Suryana is a Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and is a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia.]
Source: https://fulcrum.sg/state-complicity-in-religious-intolerance-under-the-widodo-administration