SHIFTING WATERS IN THE POLITICS OF AND ITS IMPACTS ON INDONESIAN I N D I G E N O U S C O M M U N I T I E S

Summary and review by Kelli A. Swazey Samsul Maarif, Pasang Surut Rekognisi Agama Leluhur dalam Politik Agama di (The Tides of Recognition: Indigenous in the Politics of ) CRCS-UGM, 2017.

Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya (Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies) Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta Shifting waters in the politics of religion and its impact on the rights of Indonesian indigenous communities © August 2017

Author: Kelli A. Swazey

Editor: Gregory Vanderbilt

Cover Design and Layout: Imam Syahirul Alim

ISBN: 978-602-72686-9-2 16 Pages; Size 20 x 28 cm

Publisher: Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya (Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies) Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta Teknika Utara Street, Pogung, Yogyakarta Telp/Fax: 0274 544976 www.crcs.ugm.ac.id; Email: [email protected] INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Foreword

The Tides of Recognition: Indigenous Religions to complement material on the variety in the Politics of Religion in Indonesia is the of religions that are commonly covered second book that the Center for Religious in programs, but quite and Cross-cultural Studies has published significantly to interrogate the very definition this year (2017) to respond to current issues of “religion” itself. related to religion in Indonesia. In May, we In the realm of policy, the politics of published Krisis Keistimewaan – Kekerasan defining religion is even more crucial. The terhadap Minoritas di Yogyakarta [“The Crisis issue is not simply how well a definition of “Keistimewaan” (Yogyakarta’s Special represents the phenomenon it attempts Status): Violence towards Minorities in to refer to and study, but also whether Yogyakarta]. In line with that book and our it is sufficiently inclusive, and thus non- many other publications, we expect this book discriminative. In its Indonesian version, will contribute to debates on policies that this book uses the term “agama leluhur” affect communities who practice “indigenous (literally: ancestral religion) as the preferred religion” throughout Indonesia and that it Indonesian terminology for this term. We will serve as material for our courses on the have to acknowledge that the choice of subject. To make Maarif’s book available for terms in both English and Indonesian also English-speaking audience we publish this reflects a political position. As shown in this summary and review by Kelli A. Swazey. book, many groups of Indonesian citizens CRCS has offered a course titled are denied their fundamental human rights “Indigenous Religions” for a number of because they are identified as belonging years. The course is taught alongside other to indigenous religions. In line with the courses that are commonly offered at understanding of dominant religious groups, many other academic programs in religious in the state’s definition, belonging to an studies, such as world religions. Indeed, it is indigenous religion implies that these groups not an exaggeration to say that the course, and individuals “do not have any religion currently taught by Samsul Maarif, occupies (yet)”. This problem of recognition started a central place in our curriculum, not simply in the colonial period and intensified after

1 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Independence, and many features of the Our expectation is that this condensed policies developed in those eras remain English summary and review by CRCS until today, despite some improvements researcher and lecturer Kelli A. Swazey following Indonesia’s democratization after and Samsul Maarif’s original publication in 1998. The ongoing review of the 2006 Civil Indonesian may stimulate further discourse Administration Law at the Constitutional and contribute to the enrichment of our Court, where Maarif presented the findings understanding of Indonesian indigenous he has written about in Tides of Recognition religious communities, in turn improving as an expert witness in May 2017, is the most their standing as equal Indonesian citizens. recent reflection of this dynamic.

2 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

SHIFTING WATERS IN THE POLITICS OF

ANDRELIGION ITS IMPACTS ON INDONESIAN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Summary and review by Kelli A. Swazey Samsul Maarif, Pasang Surut Rekognisi Agama Leluhur dalam Politik Agama di Indonesia (The Tides of Recognition: Indigenous Religions in the Politics of Religion in Indonesia) CRCS-UGM, 2017.

Religion (agama) is essential to the orientations and are, for them, equivalent Indonesian concept of citizenship, as until to the participation of other Indonesians in recently all citizens must declare a religion on the recognized . Alternately classified essential civil documents in order to receive as kebudayaan (culture), (tradition or the services and civil rights guaranteed by traditional law), kebatinan (), or the state. However, the Indonesian state aliran kepercayaan ( groups), these only officially recognizes six religions: names encompass diverse practices from , , Catholicism, , the Javanese philosophy of kejawen to the and . These official specific cosmologies held by ethnic based religions are recognized by fulfilling certain communities like the Parmalim of North narrowly defined criteria that state uses to Sumatra, as well as new religious movements distinguish a religion from particularistic emerging from these cosmologies, such as practices which it then relegates to the Sapto Dharmo. The practices that fall under category of ‘culture.’ For many groups, these labels are defined in distinction to the these practices constitute systems of category of official religion (agama) with the belief or cosmologies that encompass implication that those who ascribe to these rules about daily life as well as spiritual beliefs have ‘yet’ to embrace a ‘religion’ and

3 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES are hence more ‘primitive’ or delayed in The concept of adat, which is normally the ‘civilization process’. From the colonial glossed as traditional systems of rights and period through the present post-Reformasi rules anchored in the cultures of particular allegiance to representative democracy, the communities, was utilized by the Dutch as state’s treatment of the array of practices part of their divide-and-conquer politics for and cosmologies that do not align with the colonial East Indies. Scholars codified the official definition of religion has long local rules and mores from across the been a challenge in the management of archipelago into codes of customary law Indonesia’s diverse population. The result is (adretrecht) to differentiate Islam as a foreign discrimination and coercion towards those influence in the region (Bowen 1983:230). groups who insist on their right to identify The colonial revitalization of adat institutions with their belief systems outside of the six was intended to create an alliance between officially recognized civil religions. local communities and the Dutch against Muslim militants. Labeling some practices as The Tides of Recognition: Indigenous adat and revitalizing them created tensions Religions in the Politics of Religion in Indonesia and polarized cultural communities against (CRCS 2017) examines the history of the legal Islamic groups, as the Dutch perceived definition of what Maarif terms “indigenous (political) Islam as an element that needed religions” in Indonesia, arguing these beliefs to be curtailed and controlled. This was belong within the category of religion, and the beginning of the relegation of certain the impact of this legal process on groups practices to the domain of ‘culture’ that who identify as themselves as practitioners. was defined in contradistinction to a The choice of the term indigenous religions Western definition of religion then being is in itself a call for the recognition of these formulated. The effort to segregate Islam practices as living, contemporary, and from local practices was carried out through equivalent to official state religions, a nuance educational efforts under the so-called the author finds lacking in such other terms as Ethical Policy of the late colonial period, asli (original), local, or ancestral. As the book which focused on adat ‘revitalization’ by documents, however, the debate over how to modernizing traditional practices through characterize these practices has a contentious the teachings of Christianity. history that begins with the efforts of colonial powers to impose their definition of what Following independence, Indonesian a religion should be on the diverse lifeways nationalist leaders were faced with the of inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies. The challenge of incorporating numerous debate over the definition of these practices configurations of adat alongside Islamic is inseparable from the politics of religion, as and secular systems of law and the reality a category and as organizations of political of Christian majorities in certain strategic actors, in contemporary Indonesia, and an regions into a unified national system issue that has significant implications for (Bowen 1983:280). The drafting of the citizens’ rights. Indonesian constitution starting in 1945 reflected these tensions in balancing the The Tides of Recognition begins by desires for an Islamic Indonesia with concern tracing the development of the concepts of for populations that belonged to other adat and agama during the colonial period.

4 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES world religions or the numerous groups that groups associated with communism. fell under the category Kepercayaan and Although communities identified as adat communities. In an initial draft of the practicing kebatinan/kepercayaan were not constitution, the inclusion of the Jakarta necessarily associated with the Communist Charter, which stated that “The Indonesian Party, they fell into the category of , State is based on belief in the One and Only and therefore were considered insufficiently with the obligation for Muslims to live pious and thus communist by default. During according to Islamic law,” was amended this period, groups continued to push due to fears it would be used against non- the association of abangan and kebatinan Muslim populations. The term kepercayaan groups as atheistic and, within the Cold War (belief) appeared in the second clause of the context, Communist. The formation of the draft constitution: “The nation guarantees Department of Religion (Depag) on January the freedom for all inhabitants to embrace 3rd, 1946, was a response on behalf of santri and practice according to their religion groups disappointed that the mandate for and beliefs.” In some interpretations, the Islamic law was not to be inscribed in the word kepercayaan (belief) in this clause is constitution. For the last seven decades, understood as referring to internal pluralism the Department of Religion has played in Islam, not to the existence of groups an essential role in framing the evolving outside of the religions recognized by the definition of religion under this influence of state, a reaction and safeguard against the polarization between groups claiming pressure from santri groups who championed the prerogative to speak for Islam, whether a more orthodox interpretation of Islam. In defined as orthodox or as open to diversity. this sense, kepercayaan can be interpreted as part of agama, not something outside of The 1950s: Defining and debating the role it. Other interpretations see the addition of of belief/mystical groups the phrase “and beliefs” as a compromise not only for more “syncretic” practices of In 1952, the Department of Religion released Islam (aliran abangan), but also for any its definition of religion, one that reflects an non-Muslim groups who feared that they interpretation of religion in line with santri would be forced to submit to Islamic law politics and an orthodox interpretation of under the new national system. At the very Islam. A religion according to this definition least, Maarif notes, the phrase indicated that is a teaching which conforms to the first at the inception of the Indonesian nation, article of Pancasila—Ketuhanan yang Maha there were communities who claimed to be Esa (Belief in the One and Only God), was different from “orthodox” religious groups revealed to a prophet and has one distinct with representation inside the government. holy book, and is internationally recognized. Although this definition was not codified in In the late 1940s, santri (pietistic) official state documents, it continues to exert versus abangan (syncretic) Islamic groups, a strong influence over how the state limits to use terms popularized by the American what can be called a religion until today. anthropologist Clifford Geertz, were politically polarized, with santri on the side In addition to promoting a narrow of the military pitted against the abangan definition of religion that could be used

5 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES to exclude groups and practices deemed to be recognized as such by the state; rather heterodox, the Department of Religion they were seeking to improve “religiosity” in evolved as an institution that served as a the country. By 1957, the group had begun “watchdog” for belief groups, treating them to move away from the Department of as a threat to nationalism and to the five Religion’s control, instead requesting that officially recognized religions. In 1953, the the President himself recognize kebatinan Department formed the Coordinating Board groups as equal to official religions. Although for Monitoring Belief Groups (PAKEM) to Soekarno praised the groups for orienting oversee communities and organizations themselves to Pancasila, he also cautioned not affiliated with any of the official them against practices labelled black magic religions and to assure that they did not (klenik). This suspicion towards indigenous transform into “new” religions able to make religions of being ‘backwards’ or ‘deviant’ in claims on the international stage. In their relation to the “progressive” world religions capacity to survey the religious landscape, continues to haunt these groups and is the Department also contributed to the expressed in contemporary debates over continuing processes of the classification religious practice and identity in Indonesia of non-official groups. The Department’s today, particularly in cases alleging the success in defining aliran kepercayaan/ defamation of religion (penodaan agama). kebatinan as different from religion(s) also had the effect of encouraging these 1960s: Religion ascends groups to organize themselves and codify their teachings and practices. In 1953 the By the time of the IV Congress of BKKI Department of Religion recorded over three in 1960, kebatinan organizations were hundred and sixty distinct aliran kepercayaan continuing to push for the recognition of groups nationwide, with twenty-nine in West their identity as equivalent to the official alone. world religions recognized by the state. Orthodox Islamic political groups, however, The increasing visibility of these groups maintained that placing these kebatinan through the 1950s coincided with their organizations on equal footing with state- consolidation and with their effort to push recognized religions such as Islam would set back against the implications that they were a dangerous precedent. The 1960 Decree a threat to the nationalism. Formed in 1955, of the People’s Consultative Assembly the People’s Kebatinan Congress in Indonesia Outline of the Pattern of Overall National (BKKI) represented seventy organizations Development Phase One 1961-1969 (TAP and called for the government to recognize MPR No.II/MPRS/1960) exemplifies the aliran kebatinan. In its second congress in ongoing negotiations over the position of 1956, the organization put forward a refined aliran kepercayaan groups in the Indonesian definition of kebatinan that showed they fit nation. Although its second article states the first principle of Pancasila (Belief in the that ‘mystical’ and ‘cultural’ practices are to One God). However, under pressure from be accommodated as equal to religion, the the Department of Religion, the BKKI also same article outlines that stated that its member organizations were will be applied at all levels of schooling, with not aiming to become new religions per se the concession that students can opt out of

6 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES religious education. This was interpreted as the role of religion was about to undergo a display of the power of the santri groups a dramatic shift. In the violent aftermath to continue to push for limitations on the of Soeharto’s ascension to power in 1965- movement of aliran kepercayaan groups into 66, kebatinan/kepercayaan groups along public life. The pressure to restrict these with abangan Muslims became enemies of groups was increasingly reflected in state the state due to their association (real or policies aimed at policing them. In 1961, imagined) with communism. Converting PAKEM was moved under the aegis of the to one of the state’s “official religions” was public prosecutor’s office and expanded often a necessity to protect oneself and one’s to have a presence in every province and family against the accusation of association regency in order to better fulfill its function with the Indonesian Communist Party. of monitoring these groups that could, in the Declaring membership in one of the state’s state’s estimation, “endanger the community officially recognized religious categories and the nation.” became a means of first escaping violence and then of ensuring one received the full Developments in 1965 constituted protection of the state. another legal blow to the recognition and status of practitioners of indigenous religions with the establishment of the Law No.1/ 1968-78: Finding safety under the label of PNPS/1965 on the Misuse and/or Defamation culture of Religion. This was the first codification In the transformed political landscape of into law which directly legitimized religion the New Order in the late 1960s, kebatinan/ (agama) according to the definition provided kepercayaan groups began to receive by the Department of Religion, hence support from elite politicians and factions delegitimizing kebatinan/kepercayaan by of the military. BKKI transitioned into the positioning practitioners as violating the The Coordinating Body of Associations law and disturbing the unity of the nation. of Belief, and Mysticism in The policy implied that religious groups Indonesia (BK5I). The addition of the term are clearly defined and that teachings and kepercayaan to the organization’s name practices labeled kepercayaan/kebatinan are was an effort to assert a direct link between not equal to religion, in both their nature these groups and the Constitution Article and in the rights they were entitled to. It 29. Informally asked to join Golkar in 1970, also implied that followers of these groups the organization came under the jurisdiction did not have a religion, as they fell outside of the Coordinating Secretariat of Beliefs of the six religions recognized by the state: (SKK) of the Golkar Party, and hence was, at Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, least structurally, considered by proponents Buddhism and Confucianism (which was of Kepercayaan to be equivalent to the outlawed by a special presidential instruction Indonesia Ulama Association (MUI). The in 1967 that was finally revoked in the year kebatinan/kepercayaan groups thus found a 2000). kind of legitimation through incorporation The tides of institutional attitudes into Golkar, and the shift in their title served towards kebatinan/kepercayaan groups were to distance the groups from an association changing, just as public understanding of with “occultism.”

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In the Outlines of State Policy passed expressions,” but simultaneously continued in 1973, the Peoples Constitutive Assembly to be allowed weekly broadcast time for their (MPR) declared that kepercayaan was teachings on state television channels (TVRI) equivalent to religion on the basis that these alongside the “recognized” religions. The groups were rooted in Belief in the One and 1978 policy from the People’s Consultative Only God (Subagya 1976:125 in Picard and Assembly (TAP MPR RI IV/MPR 1978 on Mardinier 2011:15). This statement instigated GBHN) and later regulations made it clear a backlash from Islamic forces that would that only five religions were recognized and lead to a significant change in the state’s qualified to receive state services, such as categorization of non-official religions. At religious education in public schools. The the 1978 People’s Constitutive Assembly, a main reference point for this new limitation debate erupted over the proposed Pedoman was in civil registration processes required Penghayatan dan Pengamalan Pancasila of all citizens, including registration of the (P-4), a curriculum guide for national Family Card (Kartu Keluarga/KK) and the education about the national ideology of National Identification Card (Kartu Tanda Pancasila. Members of the MPR from the Penduduk/KTP) as well as paperwork United Development Party (PPP) responded pertaining to birth, marriage, divorce, by rejecting any kind of recognition for death, burial, and access to education. The the aliran kepercayaan. Protests and walk- practical impact of these policies in defining outs occurred as some Muslim groups saw religion was that forthwith all civil forms the legal recognition of kepercayaan as had a column where the individual was blasphemous (syirik). Under this pressure, required to enter his/her religious identity or the government turned to the strategy be denied services. Those who belonged to of “culturizing” kepercayaan and further aliran kepercayaan groups had little choice defining this category against the category but to affiliate with a recognized religion if of religion. Thus, the policy enacted in 1978 they wanted to access civil services. Even (TAP MPR No. IV/MPR/1978) states that registering for electricity required an ID card “the Belief in the One and Only God” is not listing an official religion. sufficient to define what is a religion and will The religion column was a result not transform non-recognized groups into of these policies from 1978 onward, as new religions as such.” The management of previously religion was not listed on the all aliran kepercayaan groups was moved to National Identity Card. These policies the Department of Education and Culture, also strengthened the imperative for definitively categorizing these groups within national institutions to monitor followers the realm of culture, not religion. of kepercayaan. The Coordinating Board for Monitoring Belief Groups in Society 1978-1998 Solidifying the definition of (BakorPakem) was shored up to assure that religion aliran kepercayaan groups did not transform The paradox of this “culturization” of into new religions that would confuse the kepercayaan was that the groups that didn’t system with claims to equal footing. They belong to an official were were thus prohibited from resembling or characterized as “cultural organizations or conflicting with official religions. These

8 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES policies established in the middle part of New Where previous Decrees of the People’s Order persisted even beyond the end of the Consultative Assembly (TAP MPR) had regime, eliminating the space for followers underlined that kepercayaan was a form of indigenous religions to express their of culture that could not be allowed to beliefs and identities. Furthermore, they now move towards institutionalization as a new faced discrimination and the possibility of religion but had been less clear as to how criminalization. such designations should shape the daily lives of their followers, the TAP MPR No.X Marriage law was also affected by the 1998 went so far as to state all followers reformulated definition of religion, although of kepercayaan were required to belong to the paradoxical attitudes of the New Order one of the state-recognized world religions. government towards non-official religions “Culturizing” the practices of the followers of continued to be displayed. Although Law indigenous religions essentially forced them No. 1/1974 and Government Regulation to redefine themselves as members of one of no. 9/1975 ensured that practitioners of the state’s official religions. In the TAP MPR kepercayaan could be listed on marriage RI No. 2001, “Belief (Kepercayaan) in the One licenses at the civil court, the case of the and Only God” was listed under the heading marriage of Protestant Lydia Kandau to of culture, and aliran kepercayaan were no Muslim Jamal Mirdad in 1983 garnered longer recognized as an official category. As strong public reaction, leading to Presidential other scholarship has shown, some groups Decree No. 12 1983 stating that civil courts strategically affiliated themselves with could only register the marriages of those official world religions, while others found belonging to religions other than Islam while themselves cut of the system entirely. Islamic marriages were to come under Islamic authorities. The Head of the Civil Marriage Registry in Jakarta further instructed that the Reformasi: Human rights as a basis for civil courts could only record those marriages recognition already recognized by religious institutions. In the Reformasi era following the 1998 Not only did these rulings significantly limit collapse of the Suharto regime, the struggle marriages between members of different for the rights of followers of indigenous recognized religions, like the couple whose religions or aliran kepercayaan was renewed wedding sparked the controversy, they through efforts to amend Indonesian had the effect of further restricting the Constitution according to development rights of followers of indigenous religions of global standards of Human Rights. This from identifying with their communities of marked the emergence of a new discourse belief, since they lacked the recognition as about followers of non-official religions. religions that could solemnize marriages, Various labels came to be used to describe and obstructed their ability to form families what had formerly been referred to as aliran through the of their own religious kepercayaan, such as indigenous religions traditions. (agama leluhur), local religions (agama lokal), At the end of the New Order period, archipelago religions (agama Nusantara), and the tide of politics turned more strongly local wisdom (kearifan lokal). This discourse towards limitations on aliran kepercayaan. asserted that these groups are ‘indigenous’

9 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES to localities within Indonesia, while those of Misuse and/or Defamation of Religion. religions recognized by the state are The Indonesian courts’ concern over the ‘imported’. This new perspective coincided danger that indigenous religions pose to with the establishment of the Indigenous society and nation was further displayed People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) in Law No. 16/2004 and in the 2005 letter in 1999, an organization that lobbies from the Ministry of the Interior (Surat No. on behalf of “traditional communities” 477/07/MD), denying the right of marriages (masyarakat adat) in Indonesia in connection performed outside of the six official state with the global movement for the recognition religions to be recorded. of indigenous rights. Institutionalized discrimination against Amendments to Indonesia’s followers of non-official religions continues Constitution, especially the amendments on to be an issue in legislation regarding civil Human Rights, have served as a reference registration processes. As noted in the for the revitalization of national discussion 2006 Law on Civil Administration (UU about the country’s indigenous religions, Administrasi Kependudukan 23/2006), now referred in these terms. Specifically, “[problems of discrimination] persist Chapter XA Article 28A-28J, which details especially in field of civil registration, where , belief, and assembly. citizens are discriminated against by the These sections delineate belief and religion divisions of ethnicity, race and religion in as separate but equal entities, outlining a number of policies that were products that followers of either should be equally of the colonial period.” In regards to the protected and served by the state. However, religion column on the National Identity the same chapter contains language Card, the Law provides that adherents of that indicates these freedoms must be what was now termed, albeit ambiguously, tempered by limitations based on “moral “religions yet to be recognized as religions” considerations and religious values” (Article (agamanya belum diakui sebagai agama) 28J Paragraph 2). The phrase contained in can leave the column blank, but are still this paragraph has been a point of debate, deserving of the same rights and services as it can be interpreted to limit freedoms (in as other citizens. This represented a contradiction to the International Covenant breakthrough in the institutional recognition on Civil and Political Rights adopted in of long-term, systematic discrimination 1966 and ratified by Indonesia in 2006), and against adherents of indigenous religions. was cited in the decision delivered by the Another positive breakthrough was seen in Constitutional Court’s review of the 1965 the development of new policies aimed at religious defamation law. facilitating the registration of marriages for practitioners of indigenous religions without The conversation about the rights requiring them to register as a member of of indigenous religious practitioners, as an official state religion. seen through the frame of the human rights amendments to the constitution, Presidential Regulation No. 25 2008 is has also renewed concerns about religious the first official national policy document to defamation and spurred renewed attention define kepercayaan in any form. Diverging to the Law PNPS/1965 on the Prevention from earlier documents that described aliran

10 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES kepercayaan as a threat to public order, traditions, requiring both recognition of their this document recognizes these groups existence and efforts to protect them and as fulfilling the qualifications as religions their practices from discrimination by other if their doctrines recognize belief in the citizens and local governments. One and Only God as set down in the first Finally, state recognition of the rights Principle of Pancasila. Following the 2006 of practitioners of indigenous religions is Law on Civil Administration, the Government being realized through educational reform. Regulation on the Enactment of the Law on Since 1960, religious education has been Civil Administration (2007), the Presidential required in public schools with instruction Regulation (2008), and the Joint Decrees of limited only to the six (or at times five) Ministers of Domestic Affairs and Culture officially recognized world religions. and Tourism (No. 42/40/2009 on Guidance Previously, all students were required to for Conservation of Cultural Heritage; and attend religious education courses regardless No. 43/41/2009 on Guidance of Services for of whether they practiced one of the official Followers of Kepercayaan) all represented religions or not. This resulted in de facto significant steps forward in the recognition of discrimination as students from communities adherents of indigenous religions. Although practicing indigenous religions were not not entirely eliminating discrimination, these provided with curricular offerings that policies have facilitated the right to register recognized their practices, and even more marriages and the births of children, as well egregiously, contributed to their identities as educational rights for members of these being subsumed under one of the state- communities. recognized religions. The 2016 policy from the Ministry of Education and Culture (No. Different but deserving: cultural groups 27/2016) for followers of kepercayaan allows with equal rights students to opt out of religious education if Since 2012, policies on groups identifying their practice is not represented, as well as as traditional religious practitioners have opens the possibility for the development of continued to define aliran kepercayaan as curriculum for instruction on the beliefs of deserving of the same service and rights as indigenous religion communities. Although religious groups, even as they are defined problems persist in the application of this as practicing something that is different policy, the preparation of infrastructure from religion. Recognized as community to support this shift in educational policy organizations (orkemas) under Regulation towards previously discriminated groups is a of the Ministry of Home Affairs No. 33 2012, positive development. groups registering under the name of a “belief” are classified as cultural entities, Rights without recognition as Religion? managed under the Ministry of Culture and However, even as practitioners of Education. The Ministry’s 2013 policy on indigenous religions gain state recognition these groups (No.7/2013) serves a guide for of certain civil rights, the increasingly regional governments in fulfilling their rights, politicized stakes of defining religion as well as documenting and preserving their continues to problematize the existence

11 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES and the institutional acceptance of practices The Tides of Recognition concedes that categorized as kepercayaan. In the 2009 the advances in recognizing the civil rights review of the PNPS No.1/1965 at the of practitioners of indigenous religions, such Constitutional Court, both the House of as the option to leave the religion column Representatives and the Muslim Ulama in civil documents blank, represent only a Council continued to characterize adherents partial solution to overcoming impediments and practices of all beliefs outside the official to equality for these groups. Leaving the religions as a threat to society, nation, and religion column blank still functions as an the purity of religious practice itself. When indication of “not having” a religion, opening groups representing the aliran kepercayaan the possibility for all of the historical stigma communities requested a repeal of the law that entails. Furthermore, beyond access to due to its inherently discriminatory view of all civil registration and social services, these non-official religious groups, the court ruled groups often face economic and social issues that the law guarantees equal protection linked to their ways of life and belief systems, to “recognized religious groups” and that including the ways indigenous religion previous discrimination was attributable to communities are deeply connected to their incorrect application of legal administrative natural environment as an essential part of procedures. their identities and livelihoods. Thus, the book recommends that the government form Judge Maria Farida Indrati dissented, a Special Unit (Satgas) to analyze the wider noting that the government’s inconsistent social, economic, and political obstacles to practices in the application of the law ensuring that practitioners of indigenous meant that only the six official religions are religions enjoy the same rights and services accorded full service and protection, as was as other citizens. Most importantly, policies demonstrated in cases where members of that contain discriminatory elements must non-official religious groups continue to be reviewed and/or replaced. experience problems with civil registration processes. Even though individuals now Although The Tides of Recognition have the right to leave the religion column recognizes that significant impediments blank in civil documents like the National remain to achieving equal civil rights for Identity Card (KTP.), in practice, exercising practitioners of indigenous religions, the the right not to identify with one of the book could go further in theorizing the official state religions in civil procedures wider social and political implications of leaves citizens vulnerable to discrimination, ontologically classifying these practices as it is still normatively understood that not and communities as part of culture instead having a religion means association with of religion, each of which is a category with communism, , and anti-nationalism. a weighty academic and political global Current debate concerns whether followers history. Despite governmental recognition of indigenous religions should be able of followers of indigenous religions and to fill in the name of their own practice assurances that they are to be guaranteed or community, or if the religion column equal rights and service under national law, should be removed from state documents civil registration processes continue to be altogether. hindered by social stigma and normative

12 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES cultural attitudes towards practitioners who different sectors of society To members fall outside of the six official state religions. of world religions, it guarantees religious Lack of coordination and education in freedom and tolerance under the aegis law and policy enforcement at local levels of national unity and purpose. To those continues to obstruct the full application of who would hold on to traditional ways it these institutional advances in recognizing is highly censorious, linking the absence and protecting the rights of indigenous of recognized religion to the rejection of practitioners. These institutional victories colonialism.” (Monnig Atkinson, 1983:688). may be essentially ineffectual if normative understandings of the category of religion These problems persist even as members continue to be highly politicized and if of groups whose practices don’t fit into the government bodies continue to perceive normative Indonesian definition of religion religion, in its narrow official definition, as are granted rights concessions as cultural something in need of protection from the entities. Religious identification remains an inherent diversity of the Indonesian nation influential normative framework that shapes rather than on its behalf. perceptions of difference, even as in some Tracing the history and shifting places the resurgence of adat as category for legal status of practitioners of indigenous representation, and a growing awareness of religions clearly demonstrates the powerful the global movement for indigenous rights, discursive heritage of how agama has been challenges that model. Being subsumed imagined, and, essentially, how it continues under the category of culture is a concession to play a powerful role in conceptions of that has allowed aliran kepercayaan to Indonesian citizenship. Indeed, The Tides gain a kind of institutional recognition, but of Recognition forces us to ask what, if precludes a more inclusive definition of anything, has changed in the deep structure agama that would strengthen their position of Indonesian religiosity since the 1980s as religious practitioners, and in turn link the when the anthropologist Jane Monnig rights of indigenous groups to other religious Atkinson explained that “Indonesia’s policy minorities who suffer from similar forms of on religion contains different messages for discrimination in Indonesia.

13 INDONESIAN POLITICS OF RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Works Cited:

Atkinson, Jane Monnig. “Religions in Dialogue: The Construction of an Indonesian .” American Ethnologist 10, no. 4 (November 1983): 684-96. Bowen, John R. “The transformation of an Indonesian property system: adat, Islam and social change in the Gayo highlands.” American Ethnologist 15 (1988): 274-93. Picard, Michel, and Remy Madinier. The Politics of Religion in Indonesia: , , and Religious Contention in Java and Bali. Oxford and New York: Routledge , 2011.

Author:

Kelli A. Swazey is a lecturer and researcher at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Her research interests are on religion and identity, culture and Christianity, ethnicity, media and public practices of identity, representation and recognition in the multicultural state, and the construction of ‘the local.’

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