On the back of a failing report card on the current state of religious tolerance in the country, experts say that the inability of government officials to separate their duties from their personal beliefs is one of the reasons the country is continuing to struggle to curb violations of faith-based human rights.
Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Mon, July 06 2015, 3:13 PM
On the back of a failing report card on the current state of religious tolerance in the country, experts say that the inability of government officials to separate their duties from their personal beliefs is one of the reasons the country is continuing to struggle to curb violations of faith-based human rights.
Ahmad Fuad Fanani, the research director for the Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity, said that government officials were mostly unaware that religious tolerance was mandated by the Constitution.
Fuad said that it was often the case that government officials — whether from local administrations or law enforcement agencies — passed judgement on minority groups facing discrimination, either by siding with the majority or through inaction.
“Most of them [are still prone to] play the savior and project themselves as a good [influence] in the public eye, even though the law requires them to treat all citizens equally as mandated in the Constitution,” the Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN Syarief Hidayatullah) lecturer told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
To resolve the problem, Fuad recommended the government strengthen the legal basis for religious tolerance, so that officials could be prosecuted if they failed to protect minority groups.
Meanwhile, interfaith activist Bonar Tigor Naipospos also said that government officials could easily be influenced by their beliefs while conducting their duties.
“There’s indeed a tendency among officials to be biased,” he said, adding that security authorities declined to intervene against intolerance, arguing that it was not a security or public order issue.
On Friday, a quarterly report released by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) stated that law enforcers were half-hearted in their commitment to protect human rights as the measures they take against intolerance are only for the prevention of public disorder.
“They are relatively responsive in dealing with such violations, but their moves are not aimed specifically at protecting religious minority groups against rights abuses,” the Komnas HAM commissioner overseeing religious tolerance, M. Imdadun Rahmat, said during a recent press conference in Jakarta.
Rebuffing the claim, National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto said police actions were constrained by laws.
Agus said that in faith-based conflicts police allow conflicting sides to settle their differences first.
“As long as the issue can still be sorted out through dialogue among those involved […] and it hasn’t resulted in any material losses or deaths, resolution need not be sought through court.”
In addition to exposing weak law enforcement, the Komnas HAM report also provides recommendations for central and regional governments, as well as for lawmakers in the House of Representatives, to ensure that religious tolerance is practiced everywhere in the country.
The commission urged regional administrations to be more open and cooperative in cases of religious intolerance, while also putting emphasis on the role of central government in raising awareness and commitment for human rights, by making religious tolerance an enabling indicator in the success of public service in Indonesia.
To lawmakers, the report encourages more cooperation with the government in drafting the bill for the protection of the right to religious freedom.
Similar to the Komnas HAM report, the Setara Institute has found at least 116 recorded incidents of religious intolerance since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo came into power last year.
“In the first eight months of his presidency, we haven’t seen any changes in regulatory frameworks in regard to the protection of the right to religious freedom,” said Bonar.
