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It is
fashionable these days for Western leaders to praise Indonesia as a model
Muslim democracy. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said: “If you want
to know whether Islam, democracy, modernity and women’s rights can coexist, go
to Indonesia.” And last month Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, lauded
Indonesia for showing that “religion and democracy need not be in conflict.”
Tell that
to Asia Lumbantoruan, a Christian elder whose congregation outside Jakarta has
recently had two of its partially built churches burned down by Islamist
militants. He was stabbed by these extremists while defending a third site from
attack in September 2010.
This week
in Geneva, the United Nations is reviewing Indonesia’s human rights record. It
should call on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to crack down on extremists
and protect minorities. While Indonesia has made great strides in consolidating
a stable, democratic government after five decades of authoritarian rule, the
country is by no means a bastion of tolerance.
The rights
of religious and ethnic minorities are routinely trampled. While the
Constitution protects religious freedom, regulations against blasphemy and
proselytizing are often used to prosecute atheists, Bahais, Christians,
Shiites, Sufis and members of the Ahmadiyah faith, a minority Muslim sect. By
2010, Indonesia had over 150 religiously motivated regulations restricting
minorities’ rights.
In 2006,
Yudhoyono, in a new decree on “religious harmony,” tightened criteria for
building a house of worship. The decree is enforced only on religious
minorities — often when Islamists pressure local officials not to authorize the
construction of Christian churches or to harass and intimidate those worshiping
in “illegal” churches, which lack official registration. More than 400 such
churches have been closed since Yudhoyono took office in 2004.
Although
the government has cracked down on Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda affiliate that
has bombed hotels, bars and embassies, it has not intervened to stop other
Islamist militants who regularly commit less-publicized crimes against
religious minorities. Yudhoyono’s government is reluctant to take them on
because it rules Indonesia in a coalition with intolerant Islamist political
parties. He has courted conservative Islamist elements, even granting them key
cabinet positions, which emboldens Islamic extremists to use violence against
minorities.
In August
2011, for example, Muslim militants burned down three Christian churches on
Sumatra. No one was charged and officials have prevented the congregations from
rebuilding their churches. And on the outskirts of Jakarta, two municipalities
have refused to obey Supreme Court orders to reopen two sealed churches;
Yudhoyono claimed he had no authority to intervene.
In June
2008, the Yudhoyono administration issued a decree requiring the Ahmadiyah sect
to “stop spreading interpretations and activities that deviate from the
principal teachings of Islam.” The government said the decree was necessary to
prevent violence against the sect, but local governments used the decree to
write even stricter regulations. Muslim militants, who consider the Ahmadiyah
heretics, then forcibly shut down more than 30 Ahmadiyah mosques.
In the
deadliest attack, in West Java in February 2011, three Ahmadiyah men were
killed. A court eventually prosecuted 12 militants for the crime, but handed
down paltry sentences of only four to six months.
Yudhoyono
has also failed to protect ethnic minorities who have peacefully called for
independence in Papua and the Maluku Islands. During demonstrations in Papua on
May 1, one protester was killed and 13 were arrested. And last October, the
government brutally suppressed the Papuan People’s Congress, beating dozens and
killing three people. While protesters were jailed and charged with treason,
the police chief in charge of security that day was promoted.
Almost 100
people remain in prison for peacefully protesting. Dozens are ill, but the
government has denied them proper treatment, claiming it lacks the money. Even
the Suharto dictatorship allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross
to visit political prisoners, yet the Yudhoyono government has banned the ICRC
from working in Papua.
Instead of
praising Indonesia, nations that support tolerance and free speech should
publicly demand that Indonesia respect religious freedom, release political
prisoners and lift restrictions on media and human rights groups in Papua.
Yudhoyono
needs to take charge of this situation by revoking discriminatory regulations,
demanding that his coalition partners respect the religious freedom of all
minorities in word and in deed, and enforcing the constitutional protection of
freedom of worship. He must also make it clear that Islamist hard-liners who commit
or incite violence and the police who fail to protect the victims will be
punished. Only then will Indonesia deserve Cameron and Clinton’s praise.
The New
York Times
Andreas
Harsono is a researcher for the Asia division at Human Rights Watch.
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| Religious
Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, center. (Antara Photo/Jafkhairi) |
