What a Hard to be a Minority

The uncertain status of a Christian congregation who belong to the church of GKI Yasmin remains our today concern. In fact, when those Christians had to perform their rituals at the edge of street pavement and blocked by some police barricades, it showed the extreme failure of law enforcement related to the issue of religious freedom in Indonesia.

On top of that, the decision of judicial review posted by the Supreme Court, and also the recommendations of the Indonesian Ombudsman could not move the heart of the Mayor of Bogor city to unseal the church. It’s not just an irony, but it is a tragedy which castrating our common sense of democracy. We can even say that it is just logical if Nusron Wahid, the Chairman of the Ansor Youth Movement of NU issued a statement asking the Mayor of Bogor city, Diani Budiarto to resign and go out from Indonesia.

The Case of GKI Yasmin adds to the list of various cases on banning and revocating the permit of church construction amidst the discourse of religious freedom in Indonesia. GKI Yasmin and also HKBP Cinere, both have represented cases where the Building Permit (IMB) which has been previously issued, were finally revoked by the Regional Government officials. Both cases also represented in a way of such mal-administration (administrative failure) in which the Decree of the higher authorities is violated by the smaller (local) authorities.

The second issue with more cases is about churches that never have the IMB (construction permit) because there is resistance from group of people, even though those churches have been established since many years ago. Whereas, it is clear that the lack of resistance is never became a condition for issuing the permit. In fact, almost all of church constructions in Indonesia have experienced resistance with different gradations. In this case, the complexity and the long bureaucratic process of obtaining IMB are as the same as the number of intervention potentialities that can be played by private actors, government officials such as RT / RW, Village Chiefs, District Heads, Muspida, Regent Mayor, police, and the Governor in order to inhibit (or delay) the release of the IMB permit. Of course this also affects the amount of energy and costs which must be borne by the church.

The third issue is the church that had the IMB already but still unable to carry out the construction because its prevented by the masses. In this case, the police did not do any action as preventing criminal deterrence. This happened to the Church of St.. Maria Imakulata for example.

The fourth issue is the church congregation who are victimized by the obscured authority and the implementation of existing regulations. In the case of St.Mary Vianney for example, the recommendations issued by FKUB Jakarta is still hampered by the Office of the Jakarta Governor because the provincial government still imposes the Governor Rule on setting up houses of worship that should fall under the publication of Joint Ministerial Regulation Number.9 and 8 in 2006.

The next issue is the churches that give up because of the pressure of masses. HKBP Ciketing Gethsemane in Bekasi and many other cases are the concrete example of how solutions selected by the regional government were the solutions that victimized the minority groups: so they had to move from their original lands, occupy the area which is not representative, or the buildings which are far away to be reached by their congregation.

Of course the problem of churches is not as simple as the problem of IMB. IMB permit is just one entry amongst many other obstacles caused by the rise of Islamic sentiment and majoritarianism as the dominant symbol that has always been coloring the atmosphere of this country in post-reform period. In fact, there are arrogant religious groups who walk along with the decline of state authority in the eyes of society.

The Center for Religious & Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) has recently published results of extensive research project concerning the controversy of church building in Jakarta and its surrounding areas. There are seven cases of Catholic and Christian churches, six of them being studied and mapped in four categories: churches that do not have problems from the beginning; churches that are problematic and questioned after years; churches that are challenged by questions and obstacles but able to solve their problems; and churches that are problematic from the beginning and never able to solve their problems.

This research specifically looks at the problem of the church from two aspects: state regulation and social regulation. In this context, this research successfully mapped six actors who are the most responsible for the establishment of church: The first actor is the Chairman of the RT / RW. The second actor is a religious leader or religious teacher based on Mushalla around the establishing church. The third actor is FKUB, the forum that is expected to bridge into the canal of sectarian conflicts and which is often becoming part of the problem itself. The fourth actor is the Head of Government (Regents, Mayors, and so on).

What is interesting is that there are some cases where anti-church movement becomes a commodity for political campaigns for General Election. Those politic figures tend to impede the establishment of the church as the political promise to their constituency. The fifth actor is the police, especially the chief of the policemen. The sixth actor is a kind of mass-social organization which called “the Front of Islamic Defenders”, and also many local organizations which perform prevention on behalf of local residents.

The research is also rolling many important findings about social regulation which in many cases stand on state regulation. It happens so often that many administrative approaches and legal approaches are violated by the arrogance of a small group of people in the name of religion. It is an irony that the state apparatus which are the most important factor of social regulation are seemingly imprisoned and helpless against the mass of such groups. However, it is not always. In some cases, the state officials and police are the most important key who solve problems of this kind.

Over the role of such social regulation, it is clearer to us how difficult to be minority within the acute symptoms of majoritarianism. Being a minority is to be defeated in all ways. Being a minority must be willing to do complicated “approach” to the power of majority group. Being a minority must be humble since it forces us to be ready being treated as second class citizens. Being a minority must be prepared for discrimination of the majority.

Unfortunately, there are too many officials who consider that the arrogance of the “majority” over the “minorities” as natural. We are too often hearing statements that proclaim violence and distruction against smaller groups. It is even worse that the minority groups themselves often suffer from such feeling of inferiority so that they also excuse discriminations that held against themselves.

Looking at this situation, it would be very difficult for us to expect the completion of the process of democratization and the advancement of human civilization in Indonesia. Democracy presupposes equality and equal treatment under the law. Progress of civilization also requires respect and protection towards minorities. []

* Director of the Division of Democratic Muslims. Activist of National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Belief (AKKBB)