Indigenous Religions and the Impacts of Biased Politics of Citizenship

in Indonesia

Iqbal Hasanuddin

and Petrus Lakonawa

Character Building Development Center, Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics & Communication, Bina

Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Character Building Development Center, Computer Science Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara

University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Presents, Major Religions, Govermment

Abstract: This article presents the negative impacts of the politics of citizenship, based merely on the sake of major

religions, made by the government of Indonesia on indigenous religions such as Sedulur Singkep in Central

Java, Sunda Wiwitan in West Java, and Tanah Toa Kajang in South Celebes. It uses literature study method

on the state policies that have discriminated indigenous religions and their believers. This article shows that

there are several governmental regulations that violate indigenous people’s civil and political rights. In turn,

such regulations also break their economic, social and cultural rights. These regulations pave the ways for

the religious majority groups, especially Islam and Christianity, to discriminate and even persecute the local,

indigenous and minority religions. In conclusion, this article argues that the government is indeed

responsible for this inequality that is discriminatory towards the local religious adherents and their

communities of faith.

1 INTRODUCTION

The civil rights of indigenous religious believers in

Indonesia have been long violated by structured,

systematic and massive discriminations of religious-

based civic policies in Indonesia. This is

contradictory to the ideals of Pancasila as a state

philosophy of Indonesia which affirms the

importance of social justice for all Indonesian

people. Local religious believers are also part of the

Indonesian people that should be treated equally.

However, they still do not get social justice in terms

of proper recognition of their religious freedom

unlike the experience of the followers of Islam,

Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and

Confucianism (Maarif, 2017). In this article, what is

meant by the term indigenous or commonly known

in Indonesia as local religion is a belief shared by

Indonesians long before the entry of major world

religions such as Islam, Christianity, Catholicism,

Hinduism or Buddhism (Sudarto, 2016). The local

religion is often referred to as the ancestral religion

because it is a belief inherited by the ancestors of the

people in the archipelago (Maarif, 2017). When the

world's major religions came into the archipelago,

the local religions remained and were still embraced

by so many people in almost all parts of Indonesia.

Among them are Parmalin (North Sumatra), Sunda

Wiwitan (West Java), Sapta Dharma (in various

areas in Java), Dayak Pitap (South Kalimantan),

Amatoa Kajang (South Sulawesi) and many more

(Budiman, 2005). In relation to local religions and

citizenship policy in Indonesia, there are three

significant works. First, Eric Hiarej & Kristian

Stokke’s Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia (Hiariej

& Stokke, 2017). This book is a collection of some

important writings about the social movements

which aim at promoting equality among citizens in

Indonesia. Among these are women's movements

and urban poor movements, however, this book does

not address the existence of local religious adherents

at all. Second, a monograph on local religions:

Sudarto, Religionisasi Indonesia: Sejarah

Perjumpaan Agama Lokal dan Agama Pendatang

(2016); and third, Samsul Maarif, Pasang Surut

Rekognisi Agama Leluhur dalam Politik Agama di

Indonesia (2017). The latter two books carefully

review all matters relating to local religions.

However, these books do not touch any issue

regarding the politics of citizenship. This article

Hasanuddin, I. and Lakonawa, P.

Indigenous Religions and the Impacts of Biased Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010011000002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 471-476

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

471

seeks to integrate the two approaches used in those

three works: ‘the politics of citizenship’ and ‘its

impact on the indigenous religions and believers’.

With regards to the information about to local

religious adherents in Indonesia, the work of Sudarto

and Maarif provide a very adequate material.

Meanwhile, for the framework of political analysis

of citizenship in Indonesia, the work of Eric Hiarej

and Kristian Stokke (eds.) provides a very important

and deep insight. Based on these three works, this

article tries to explain the issues of local religion in

the perspective of citizenship policy in Indonesia.

2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The problem to be answered in this article is: how

does citizenship policy affect the lives of indigenous

or local religious adherents in Indonesia? To this

end, this article will show that religious-based civic

policies in Indonesia have negatively affected the

life of local religious adherents in the form of

discrimination and violation against their human

rights as equal citizens in Indonesia.

3 THE METHOD

The method used here is a literature study.

Therefore, this article will analyze legal products

which are related to local religions and their

believers with an emphasis on the dimension of

citizenship. Furthermore, with secondary sources, it

will also analyze the negative impacts of

government policies and regulations on the life of

local religious communities and individuals. It is

worth noting that the cases described here are only

examples of what has happened so far in Indonesia.

4 CITIZENDSHIP POLICY

DURING COLONIAL ERA

Politics of citizenship which is based on religion

actually has started ever since Indonesia declared its

independence in 1945. Yet, it had started even

before! During the reign of the Dutch East Indies

and Japanese occupation in Indonesia, citizenship

was formulated in such a way that it was based on

the interest of powerful religions in the society.

Within that long historical range, religious-based

civic policies have experienced ups and downs, as

well as different impacts for local religious

adherents or ancestral religions in each era.

During the Dutch East Indies colonization, the

government made a segregation of citizens based on

its cultural orientation: Islam versus Local Custom

(Adat). For the colonial government at that time,

Islamic groups, especially militant Islam, were seen

as a threat to the government. They, especially

militant Islamic groups, were perceived as rebellious

who tended to oppose government policies. On the

contrary, citizens oriented to indigenous, local or

ancestral religions were considered not as threats.

These last groups were called the Adat groups

(Suminto, 1985).

In relation to that, the Dutch East Indies

government undertook an "ethical policy" in order to

promote the culture of the people in their colonies,

including in Indonesia. Of course, the group that

became the target of this policy is the Adat groups.

Therefore, these groups were considered by the

government as a party to be engaged with, not as a

threat, and far from being considered as rebellions.

Therefore, these Indigenous people during those

times benefited from the opportunity to acquire a

modern European-style education. In contrast,

Islamic groups were not only deprived of the

opportunity to enjoy education but also remained

closely supervised (Maarif, 2017). In turn, the civic

policy that distinguished Islam and the Indigenous

people have created considerable polarization in

society. In particular, Muslims regarded the

adherents of the local religions as traitors and as

Dutch colonialist henchmen. In the meantime,

although the government considered the Adat

Politics of citizenship which is based on religion

actually has started ever since Indonesia declared its

independence in 1945. Yet, it had started even

before! During the reign of the Dutch East Indies

and Japanese occupation in Indonesia, citizenship

was formulated in such a way that it was based on

the interest of powerful religions in the society.

Within that long historical range, religious-based

civic policies have experienced ups and downs, as

well as different impacts for local religious

adherents or ancestral religions in each era.

During the Dutch East Indies colonization, the

government made a segregation of citizens based on

its cultural orientation: Islam versus Local Custom

(Adat). For the colonial government at that time,

Islamic groups, especially militant Islam, were seen

as a threat to the government. They, especially

militant Islamic groups, were perceived as rebellious

who tended to oppose government policies. On the

contrary, citizens oriented to indigenous, local or

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

472

ancestral religions were considered not as threats.

These last groups were called the Adat groups

(Suminto, 1985).

In relation to that, the Dutch East Indies

government undertook an "ethical policy" in order to

promote the culture of the people in their colonies,

including in Indonesia. Of course, the group that

became the target of this policy is the Adat groups.

Therefore, these groups were considered by the

government as a party to be engaged with, not as a

threat, and far from being considered as rebellions.

Therefore, these Indigenous people during those

times benefited from the opportunity to acquire a

modern European-style education. In contrast,

Islamic groups were not only deprived of the

opportunity to enjoy education but also remained

closely supervised (Maarif, 2017).

In turn, the civic policy that distinguished Islam

and the Indigenous people have created considerable

polarization in society. In particular, Muslims

regarded the adherents of the local religions as

traitors and as Dutch colonialist henchmen. In the

meantime, although the government considered the

Adat people as a fine group of citizens, they seemed

to consider their cultural and religious beliefs as

pagans, uncivilized and uneducated. Therefore,

ethical politics not only introduced modern

education to them, but the colonial government also

introduced Christianity as an alternative to the

beliefs and practices of the local religions (Maarif,

2017).

In the days of the Japanese Occupation, the

situation reversed. Japan made the Islamic group the

main ally against the Dutch. In this period, emerging

government policies seemed to side with the Muslim

groups. Among these is the establishment of the

Office of Religious Affairs or Kantor Urusan

Agama (KUA) and Indonesia Muslimin Syuro

Conference or Majelis Syuro Muslimin Indonesia

(MASYUMI). Meanwhile, local religious adherents

did not benefit significantly during the Japanese

occupation (Boland, 1985).

5 CITIZENDSHIP POLICY OF

THE OLD ORDER

Not long after the defeat of Japan by the Allies in

August 1945, prominent figures of the Indonesian

independence movement were preparing to establish

a new independent state. They started to make the

design of the nation building. It is at this time that a

serious polarization between Islamic groups and

local religious groups was pushing back. Now, the

term used to call both groups was the Santri and the

Abangan. The Santri group wanted that the new

state should be founded on Islamic law, while the

Abangan group opposed it. Soekarno and Hatta,

then, broke through with the idea of Pancasila to

bridge the debate between these two main

aspirations.

Within the framework of Pancasila, the Santri

and the Abangan have their places. Though failed to

make Islam as the foundation of an independent

Indonesian state, the Santri have established a

special legal position in the 1945 Constitution,

especially in Chapter 29 of the constitution. Through

this chapter, the Santri group called on the state to

provide special services to religious groups ‘as a

kind of compensation for denying the idea of an

Islamic state that they proposed’. In the meantime,

to protect its existence, the Abangan consolidate

their civic position in the constitution through the

term ‘belief’. Therefore, the 1945 Constitution

seems to raise the term religion and belief so as to

give space for both social groups (Maarif, 2017).

Later, during the Old Order, one of the major

events that strengthened the religious civic policy

was the establishment of the Ministry of Religious

Affairs (Departemen Agama) on January 3, 1946.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs was at the request

of the Islamic group. In its development, it is used to

serve Islamic groups’ interests while restricting

Abangan group's movements. This can be seen, for

example, from the fact that shortly after the

establishment of the Ministry of Religious Affairs,

the Law No.22 of 1946 on Marriage, Divorce and

Reconciliation was promulgated. This law obviously

showed that the Ministry of Religious Affairs mainly

serves Islamic groups’ sake. For marriage affairs,

divorce and reconciliation, Muslims in Indonesia

must come to the Ministry of Religious Affairs

instead of to the Civil Registry Office (Sudarto,

2016). In 1952, the Ministry of Religious Affairs

defined what is called religion. According to its

definition, religion must have three elements,

namely: prophets, scriptures and international

recognition. Of course, this definition very clearly

excluded the beliefs of local indigenous believers.

Therefore, local religions could not meet the three

religious requirements proposed by the Ministry of

Religious Affairs. Through this definition, local

religions lost the opportunity to become a religion

and get the same service from the state. Moreover,

this definition also implies that local religious

adherents are regarded as non-religious. Therefore,

Indigenous Religions and the Impacts of Biased Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia

473

the Islamic group and other major religions were

given the chance and rights to convert them.

Then, in 1953, the Ministry of Religious Affairs

established an institute to supervise the movement of

local religions which is called Pengawas Aliran

Kepercayaan Masyarakat (PAKEM). This institute

aimed at overseeing the existence of local religious

adherents who are now referred to as adherents of

spirituality (kebatinan). In particular, this institute is

tasked to ensure that these so-called the adherents of

spirituality (kebatinan) are not consolidated so well

that they cannot be transformed into new official

religions in Indonesia.

In 1961, the Pengawas Aliran Kepercayaan

Masyarakat (PAKEM) was strengthened through

Law Number 1 in 1961 on Basic Provisions of the

State Police and Law Number 15 in 1961 on Basic

Provisions of the Attorney of the Republic of

Indonesia. In general, both laws have assigned

police and prosecutors to oversee the adherents of

local religions that endanger society and the state.

With this also, the task to monitor local religious

adherents was transferred from the Ministry of

Religious Affairs to the Attorney General. With this

mandate, the Attorney of the Republic of Indonesia

issued a Circular Letter No.34/Pakem /1961 dated 7

April 1961 which contains the order to establish

Pengawas Aliran Kepercayaan Masyarakat

(PAKEM) in every province and district throughout

Indonesia.

In 1965, the Law No.1/PNPS/1965 on

Desecration and Religious Abuse was published.

This law generally affirmed the country's

recognition of six religions: Islam, Christianity,

Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The

recognition of the existence of these religions is also

followed by their rights to obtain services from the

state. In addition, this law also recognized the

existence of other religions, but the state is not

obliged to provide services to them. Among these

religions are Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Shinto, and

Taoism. Finally, this law clearly states that

indigenous religions are not religion, they are even

considered as contradicting formal religions and

judged as threats against the state and public order.

6 CITIZENDSHIP POLICY OF

THE NEW ORDER

Furthermore, during the New Order period, the

People's Consultative Assembly or Majelis

Permusyawaratan Rakyat (MPR) issued a Decree

No.IV/1978 which contains the recognition of the

five religions and the assertion that the local religion

is not a religion. The official religions which are

recognized by the state are Islam, Christianity,

Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. In addition,

every citizen is required to choose and embrace one

of the five religions. On the basis of that, the state

also requires all adherents of local religions to

embrace one of the five religions.

In order to ensure the conversion of local

religious adherents to the five official religions, the

government encouraged the Ministry of Education

and Culture to establish the Direktorat Bina Hayat

Kepercayaan (BHK) on February 5, 1979. One year

later, this directorate changed its name to the

Direktorat Pembinaan Penghayat Kepercayaan

terhadap Tuhan Yang Maha Esa (PPK) through the

decision of the Minister of Education and Culture

No. 0222e/01/1980. By this institution, the adherents

of indigenous religions are not only nurtured but

also controlled.

At the end of the New Order period, precisely in

1998, Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (MPR)

again issued TAP MPR RI Number II/1998. Its

content primarily reinforces the position of the local

religion as non-religion as well as the duty of the

local religious adherents to choose and embrace one

of the official religions recognized by the state. In

fact, in this last Act of the People's Consultative

Assembly (MPR), the existence of local religions are

not recognized at all. The word designated to it is

‘belief systems toward the Almighty God’.

7 THE IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS

CITIZENSHIP POLICY FOR

LOCAL RELIGIONS

At this point, we stop reviewing the various religious

civic policies in Indonesia for a moment and turn our

attention to see the impact of those policies on local

religious adherents. Definitely, those policies

mentioned above have negatively caused local

religious adherents to experience a very acute social

stigmatization, as it is perceived as a threat to the

state and public order. In addition, the absence of

population administration services to citizens except

for those who embrace the official religion has also

made local religious adherents as victims of

structured, systematic and massive discrimination.

Sudarto mentions that at least some types of

discriminatory practices experienced by local

religious adherents as a result of the above-

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

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mentioned civic policies based on religion, namely:

persecution, coercion of Islam, dissolution of

organizations, refusal of marriage recording, ban on

places of worship, rejection of birth certificate, and

refusal to enter into the national army (Sudarto,

2016). Here are some reviews of the negative

impacts experienced by indigenous religious

adherents.

First, persecution. This is experienced, for

example, by the local religious adherents in Mount

Leutik, Pakutandang Village, District Ciparay,

Bandung Regency, and West Java. On September 9-

10, 1954, indigenous religious believers who were

carrying out joint activities were suddenly attacked

by a group of people carrying guns and machetes. In

addition to shootings and battles, the attackers also

set fire to the house where the activities took place.

The persecutors attacked while shouting and

blaming that the adherents of this local religion are

infidels and belong to heretical sects. It was recorded

that 25 people died and many others were injured

(Sudarto, 2016).

Second, coercion against local adherents to

convert to Islam. This is, for example, happened to

the adherents of local religion in Majalengka,

Cianjur, and Kuningan. In February 1989, Sapta

Dharma adherents went to the sub district office to

arrange for the official citizenship cards. They

intended to write the name of their local religion in

the religious column within the national citizenship

cards. Subsequently, the registrar officers rejected

this request and took the 42 people to the army

headquarters for investigation and interview. In the

end, they were asked to convert to Islam. The same

thing was frequently experienced by Sunda Wiwitan

believers, et cetera (Sudarto, 2016).

Third, the dissolution of local religious

organizations. This is experienced, for example, by

the followers of Aliran Kebatinan Perjalanan in

Sumedang, Majalengka, and Subang (all three in

West Java). The same thing is experienced also by

Sunda Wiwitan communities in Kuningan (West

Java) and Sapta Dharma in Brebes (Central Java).

These communities applied for the official creation

and recognition of their identity and institution.

However, this request was rejected by the

government (Sudarto, 2016).

Fourth, refusal of marriage registration and other

civil services. This case is experienced almost

commonly among local religious followers. In

October 2002, the request for rejection of marriage

recording of local religious adherents in West Java,

Central Java, and Yogyakarta, reached 180 cases

(Sudarto, 2016). With this rejection, its derivative

impacts are imaginable, for example, children who

were born out of undocumented or illegal marriages

are not recorded in civil administration will find it

difficult to obtain birth certificates and so on.

Without a birth certificate, the children will have

difficulty to obtain citizenship cards. In turn, they

will also find it difficult to obtain other services

from the government, including the opportunity to

claim their civil rights to become civil servants,

soldiers, police, etc.

Fifth, the prohibition of gathering, carrying out

activities and establishing places of worship. These

cases strike almost all groups of the indigenous

religious faithful. Among the notable are the cases

experienced by Sapta Dharma in Rembang (Central

Java). In 2007, the Islamic Ummah Forum or Forum

Umat Islam (FUI) banned the activities of Sapta

Dharma and prohibited the establishment of their

place of worship and activity. In addition, in 2005,

the Parmalin group in Toba Samosir (North

Sumatra) intends to establish Rumah Parsaktian to

hold their activities. However, this intention was

rejected by the local HKBP congregation (Sudarto,

2016).

Sixth, refusal of birth registration. As mentioned

above, the derivative effects of the rejection of

marriage recording of local religious adherents are

the difficulty of obtaining birth certificates for their

children. This is experienced by almost all adherents

of local religions throughout Indonesia. For

example, in 2001, in Kabupaten Bandung, there

were 22 families who did not have marriage

certificates. As a result, their children do not get

birth certificates. Actually, the civil registry office

offered them to give birth certificates for children

outside of legal marriages (illegitimate children).

However, in such a case, the father's name is not

registered in the child's birth certificate (Sudarto,

2016).

From some of the cases mentioned above, we

can already understand that the religious-based

citizenship policies undertaken by the government in

Indonesia have had very negative impacts on local

religious adherents. In addition to getting negative

stigmas as a threat to the state and public order,

uneducated, uncivilized, infidels, and so on they also

do not get the equal service for their civil rights as

experienced by the official religions of the state. In

other words, the biased civic policies have made

them suffer from structured, systematic and massive

discrimination.

The question then is whether this situation can be

changed? Is it possible that local religious believers

get the same civil rights as other citizens? The

Indigenous Religions and the Impacts of Biased Politics of Citizenship in Indonesia

475

answer to this question can actually be obtained

when we look at the Reformation process in

Indonesia since 1998. Aside from overthrowing the

New Order regime that had been in power for 32

years, the Reformation also provides political

opportunity to rearrange all aspects of national and

state life in Indonesia. In addition to

democratization, another very powerful aspect

voiced in the Reformation movement in Indonesia is

the upholding of human rights.

Under the banners of human rights, the urge for

the state to equally respect, defend and protect the

civil rights of all citizens provides an opportunity for

local religious believers to gain their ground to be

recognized for their rights to practice their religions,

and to assemble and form organizations as well as to

obtain other civil rights such as in the field of civic

population administration. In this case, they can

expect to get their citizenship cards, their marriages

can be registered at the Civil Registry Office, and

their children can obtain birth certificates.

Nevertheless, that hope has not been fully

fulfilled. One of the efforts to advocate and promote

civil rights to local religious adherents is the Judicial

Review (JR) process of Law No.1 PNPS/1965 by the

Legal Aid Foundation to the Constitutional Court. If

the JR process is successful, then a major obstacle to

equal citizenship for local religious adherents will be

overcome. Unfortunately, the Constitutional Court

rejected the JR process. Therefore, until now, local

religious groups remain very vulnerable to

experience discrimination.

8 CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATION

Local religious believers are among the direct

victims of biased citizenship policies or politics

based on religions that occurred since the founding

of the Republic of Indonesia up to now. In the

constitution and various existing laws, indigenous

religions are defined as local and uncivilized

custom, at most only as belief systems, which are

regarded as insufficient to be treated as religions. As

a result, local religious believers do not get equal

citizenship rights as the ones of other citizens of the

official religions. In addition to getting stigmatized

as a threat to the state and public order, local

religious adherents are discriminated which is

obviously happens when they arrange for their

citizenship cards, marriage registration at the Civil

Registry Office, birth certificate and so on.

Thus, this article has shown the negative impacts

of religious civic policy in Indonesia towards the life

of local religious adherents. However, the negative

impacts which are exposed here are still limited to

areas of civil rights or civics rights. Further studies

are needed to determine governmental policies’

negative impacts on political rights, economic rights,

social rights and cultural rights of local religious

believers. For example, what is the possibility for

them to participate in political activities? How are

their opportunities to get hired in governmental

offices? What about their rights to ancestral lands?

How are their children's chances to get a decent

education for their future? Further studies will

certainly complete the discourse on local religions in

Indonesia and in the world.

REFERENCES

Maarif, S., 2017 Pasang Surut Agama Leluhur dalam

Politik Agama di Indonesia (Yogyakarta: CRCS

UGM)

Sudarto, 2016 Religionisasi Indonesia. Sejarah

Perjumpaan Agama Lokal dan Agama Pendatang

(Jakarta: Gramedia)

Budiman, H., 2005 Hak Minoritas: Dilema

Multikulturalisme di Indonesia (Jakarta: Tifa-

Interseksi Foundation)

Hiariej, E., and Stokke, K., 2017 Politics of Citizenship in

Indonesia (Jakarta: Yayasan Obor)

Suminto, A., 1985 Politik Islam Hindia Belanda (Jakarta:

LP3ES)

Boland, B., J., 1985 Pergumulan Islam Indonesia 1945-

1972 (Jakarta: Grafiti Press)S

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