Ainur Rohmah, Semarang – The Social and Religious Study Institute (eLSA) in Semarang, Central Java, has blamed the government and particular segments of society for the disappearance of 60 faith groups across the province this year.
The institute's director Tedi Kholiluddin said that some of the groups disappeared because they had no generations to continue. "Some others, however, vanished because they were banned by the government or particular groups of community," Tedi told The Jakarta Post in Semarang on Sunday.
He was responding to a previous statement by head of the provincial Community Faith Monitoring Agency (Pakem), Heffinur, saying that 60 faith groups had disappeared from the province this year.
Heffinur said the disappearance was due to lack of regeneration or conversion to other faiths. "Many of them were managed by elderly people," said Heffinur, who is also intelligence assistant to the Central Java Higher Prosecutor's Office, during a Pakem coordination meeting last week.
Tedi, however, said that apart from internal causes including lack of regeneration, external causes such as forced liquidation also often accounted for such disappearances.
He said there were still beliefs among the community that faiths were not religions and therefore were considered as deviant and must be disbanded. Data at eLSA, he added, showed a number of conflicts involving faiths groups in the province in 2012.
Other cases included the four-year sentence to Amanat Keagungan Ilahi (AKI) Klaten leader Andreas Guntur, people's refusal of the development of Sapto Darmo workshop in Rembang, the demolition of Ngesthi Kasampurnan workshop in Semarang regency and the dissolution of Sheh Abas Maulana Malik Ibrahim faith in Temanggung.
He offered suggestions to non-religion-based faith groups to avoid conflict by firmly declaring themselves as having no religious basis and therefore they could leave the religion column at their respective ID cards empty. "They have to be firm with their existence constitutionally because they deserve protection," Tedi said.
Gunretno, a follower of Sedulur Sikep faith group, said he did not care about the government's recognition of his faith but the way the government gave him freedom to practice his faith in reality instead. "The government has to provide equal public service," he said.
Faith groups are differentiated into two categories: cultural- or spiritual based and mystical-based. Both, according to Heffinur, required different monitoring mechanism.
Indonesia is home to over 1,515 different faith groups, 245 have management executive boards up to the national level. They account for some 10 millions of followers nationwide.
In Central Java there are currently 336 faith organizations, a decrease by 60 from previously 396. Regions considered to be strongholds of faith groups in the province include Karanganyar (29), Semarang regency (23), Surakarta (20), Ambarawa (18) and Cilacap (16).
The 60 faith groups that are currently no longer in existence were previously found in the 11 regions of Semarang regency (7), Kudus (3), Blora (5), Brebes (3), Slawi (6), Purworejo (8), Wonosobo (6), Mungkid (2), Surakarta (4), Klaten (11) and Wonogiri (5).