Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – Indonesia has suffered major setbacks in upholding religious freedom and tolerance, enshrined in the Constitution, as evident in a series of attacks on pluralism, a year-end discussion heard Tuesday.
Worse, the government, through its own policies, has seemingly given carte blanche to hard-line groups to flourish and attack minority groups they deem "deviant", Pramono Tantowi, director of the Center of Religious and Civilization Studies, told the forum held at the headquarters of Muhammadiyah, the country's second largest Muslim organization.
Pramono said a joint ministerial decree, issued earlier this year, banning the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect from spreading its teachings, showed the government's support for violence in the name of religion at the expense of minority groups.
"The government has failed to protect its citizens. It should have acted as a mediator that stands above all parties and protects individuals' right to exercise their freedom of religion," Pramono said. He added the proliferation of radical groups this year indicated a worrying trend toward Islamic fundamentalism.
Political parties, he went on, had exacerbated the situation by siding with mainstream aspirations, for their own interests. "The issue of fundamentalism has been exploited by political parties not only religious-based ones, but also nationalist ones, to woo voters ahead of the 2009 elections," he said.
He added some parties lacked the guts to go against the mainstream for fear of losing votes from the majority Muslims in the elections next year, as was evident in the passage of the anti-pornography bill, which moderate Muslims and human rights activists lambasted for curtailing pluralism.
With the elections drawing near, political parties will now reduce religious issues to political gimmicks, Pramono warned.
Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin also expressed regret over the state's failure to tackle acts of violence committed by hard-line groups, calling it proof of the government's ignorance. He cited an attack in June by the Islam Defenders Front on activists of the Alliance of Religious Freedom in Jakarta, despite a heavy security presence.
The University of Indonesia's Tamrin Amal Tomagola said the government had gone too far in meddling in religious issues, and called for a clear separation between the state and religious bodies.
He suggested the government dissolve the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Indonesian Ulema Council, calling both organizations forms of state intervention in the private matter of religious affairs.
Another speaker at the discussion, Kemala Candra Kirana, head of the National Commission on Women's Protection, highlighted the entrapment of women by dozens of government policies that she said discriminated against them.
She added the adoption of sharia-based ordinances in several areas, including a bylaw that criminalized women who went out alone at night or acted suspiciously, was an example of violence against women. "This bylaw violates the basic principle of presumption of innocence," she said.