Year End Report of Religious
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EDITORIAL TEAM Patroness Yenny Zannuba Wahid Supervisor Visna Vulovik Advisor M. Subhi Azhari Coordinator Gamal Ferdhi Members Alamsyah M. Dja’far Andi Irawan Contributor Nurun Nisa Translator Utari Widura Cover Design Putput Layout Dimas Ismail M.M Published in the collaboration of and Editorial Address The WAHID Institute Jl. Taman Amir Hamzah No. 8 Jakarta 10320 Telp. 021-3928233 / 3145671 Fax. 021-3928250 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.wahidinstitute.org – www.gusdur.net © & ℗ 2015 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR THE WAHID INSTITUTE ....................................................... v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 A. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 B. Purposes of Monitoring ........................................................................................................... 1 C. Methodology and Data Sources .......................................................................................... 2 D. Monitoring Areas ........................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER II CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................... 5 A. Religion ........................................................................................................................................ 5 B. Belief ............................................................................................................................................. 7 C. Freedom or Liberty? ............................................................................................................... 8 D. Freedom of Religion ............................................................................................................ 10 E. Violations of Freedom of Religion .................................................................................. 17 F. Issues related to Freedom of Religion .......................................................................... 20 CHAPTER III FINDINGS ..................................................................................................................... 25 A. Trend of Religious Regulations 2014 ............................................................................. 25 B. Violations of Freedom of Religion .................................................................................. 27 C. Progress and Good Practices ............................................................................................ 35 CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS .....................................,............................................................................. 41 A. Violations ................................................................................................................................. 41 B. Increasing Good Practise .................................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER V RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................ 49 A. To the Government and Leg.islative ............................................................................ 49 B. To the Police Apparatus .................................................................................................... 51 C. To the Judiciary ..................................................................................................................... 51 D. To the National Committee of Human Rights ................................................................ 51 E. To Religious Organizations .............................................................................................. 51 ANNEXES Matrix 1: Violations of Religious Freedom 2015 ........................................................... 55 Matrix 2: Best Practices of Religious Freedom 2015 .................................................. 111 iii iv MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE WAHID INSTITUTE YEAR-END REPORT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 2015 The Wahid Institute has regularly performed monitoring of the dynamics of religious freedom since 2008. For the year 2015, in addition to reporting the "bad news", we also must be fair to admit that there is "good news" about the development of freedom of religion in the Homeland. In the case of good news, we find, among others, Islam-based party personnel who become pecalang(security guards) in celebration of Nyepi in Bali, or the Evangelical Church in Indonesia that participated in donating sacrificial animals in Eid al-Adha celebration in Papua. The good news of this kind will certainly bring optimism back for the establishment of tolerance as well as strong evidence that pluralism and tolerance have long been practiced by our society. Nevertheless, news of burnings of places of worship or intimidation of minorities still occurs. The bad news will hopefully encourage us all to work harder to promote awareness of inter-religious tolerance and confidence, particularly among young people. From December 2015 to March 2016, the Wahid Institute in cooperation with the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) conducted research in three cities and three counties in West Java. It aimed to look at the role of local government in the fulfillment and protection of the right to freedom of religion in its territory. Local government is a state actor that can strengthen, or weaken, the right to freedom of religion through regulations and the rules of law in accordance with its authority. In our research, we identified the tendency of local governments to issue policies expressing the interests of the intolerant. Some are caused by the weak performance of thelocal government in addressing social and political pressure from the intolerant group. But there is also the difficulty caused by the authorities in the area to distinguish its role as a state actor that should be objective and impartial towards the role of the individual with the religion and religious opinions that are followed. Therefore, in this 2015 report we found that the largest number of religious v vi freedom violations was committed by state actors. Also in this report we noted an increase in the number of violations of freedom of religion and intolerance compared to 2014. We conclude that the main cause of the increasing number of violations of freedom of religion in 2015, were due to the absence of significant changes in the pattern of handling cases of violation of freedom od religion, although there has been a change inthe national leadership. Admittedly, there is a strong desire, particularly of the central government, to solve various problems of freedom of religion and intolerance, which are considered as one of the nation’s main problems. But the intention never came to fruition with concrete measures to solve the problems that remain unresolved, such as the Shia refugees in Sampang, the burning of GKI Yasmin, theclosing of churches in Aceh Singkil, the mosque disputes in Manokwari and Bitung and many other issues. As a result, victims of violations still continue to suffer from negligence. It is an inherited debt that has yet to be settled. This 2015 report covers 25 monitoring provinces comprisingAceh, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, Lampung, Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Bali, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, north Maluku, Papua, Gorontalo, East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Riau Islands, West Papua, Papua. In addition, in this 2015 report we use an additional approach in monitoring religious freedom thatno longer focuses on the ‘bad practices’, instead we make a concerted to identify “good practices” performed by the local government in encouraging and strengthening inter-religious tolerance. We have to apply this method to obtain a more balanced picture of the dynamics of religious life in the country. The findings that we have collected are from the news media (both printed and electronic), Focus Group Discussions in several areas, and reports fromWI networks. This year we also developeda data collection method through M-Pantau, a reporting media for the public via SMS. This Year-End Report on Freedom of Religion of 2015, we publish for the aim of providing additional information that can be useful for all parties concerned with the dynamics of religious freedom in Indonesia. We hope this report can help fellow civil society organizations in formulating strategic measures in campaigning for tolerance and peace. In addition, we hope that this report will be beneficial to the government and authorized institutions in developing policies and more precise approaches regarding the protection of religious freedom in Indonesia. We would like to thank the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM), specifically Desk KBB that has been working in the program of Strengthening the Role of Government in the Protection and Fulfillment of the Right to Freedom of Religion. We also thank the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives for supporting this year’s report launch and publication. We deliver this acknowledgment with heartfelt appreciation. Jakarta, December 31st, 2015 ZANNUBA ARIFAH CHAFSOH WAHID Director of The Wahid Institute vii viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Preface Since