A job ad by a regional Religious Affairs Office in Indonesia discriminating against non-Muslims has been modified following objections, sources said.
The Oct. 10 ad by the Tarakan Regency Ministry of Religious Affairs Office in North Kalimantan Province specified that applicants for custodial and office security positions must be Muslims able to recite the Quran, which the Tarakan branch of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement (Gerakan Mahasiswa Kristen Indonesia, GMKI) called a discriminatory government policy.
The chairman of the Tarakan Branch of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement (GMKI), Michael Jama, questioned the need for religious qualifications for positions unrelated to religion.
“How can maintaining office security or cleaning the office require specific religious qualifications?” Michael said, adding that the job required integrity and competence, not a religious label, according to news outlet Kraya.id.
Michael said the job recruitment provisions violated the Indonesian constitution’s Article 27, paragraph (1), and Article 28D, paragraph (2), concerning the right to work without discrimination. The ad put pluralism of Indonesia in danger in Tarakan, he said.
“The Tarakan City Ministry of Religious Affairs Office does not belong only to Muslims, but to all Tarakan residents from various religious backgrounds,” he said, reported Kraya.id.
Instagram user account @kabarsejuk accused the ad of “job vacancies of demonstrating religious discrimination institutionalized by the state,” adding, “This practice contradicts the principle of equality in the 1945 Constitution and ILO [International Labor Organization] Convention No. 111.”
The ILO Convention’s Article 1 rejects “any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.”
The Instagram user noted that many churches in Indonesia employ a large number of Muslims, stating, “Many churches in Indonesia hire Muslim workers without questioning their beliefs. These workers are still allowed to worship freely while maintaining a professional work environment.”
The Indonesian Unity for All (Persatuan Indonesia untuk Semua, PIS) movement also noted that religion-based recruitment of government employees is a form of institutional discrimination that is extremely dangerous if permitted to continue, undermining equality for all citizens.
“This could slowly undermine the principle of equality of citizens before the law,” the PIS movement explained in a video and written statement. “The Ministry of Religious Affairs should be the protector of all people, not a bad example of bureaucratic intolerance. Its perspective may be flawed, if an institution that should maintain harmony sets religious requirements for roles like security guards or cleaning services.”
Following public criticism, the Tarakan Regency Department of Religious Affairs removed the Islamist requirements from the ad at 1 p.m. the same day (Oct. 10), according to Kraia.id.
An official at the Tarakan Ministry of Religious Affairs Office who goes by the single name of Sultan reportedly said the ad had been in circulation for two years. The wording outlining the discriminatory requirements was present because it was posted at a local Hajj dormitory, he said, adding that his office had not previously revised it as they were preparing an official visit of the Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs.
State Favoritism
Granting job opportunities to certain groups despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom can be categorized as state favoritism, said Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace.
Indonesia was not founded on Islam, he said, citing another example of state favoritism in the government’s plan to rebuild the Al-Khoziny Islamic Traditional Boarding School in Sawahan village, Buduran Sub-district, Sidoarjo Regency, East Java Province, which collapsed and claimed dozens of lives last month, Bonar said.
The male students’ dormitories at the school collapsed on Sept. 29 when management’s attempt to build a fourth storey failed, according to the official website of the National Disaster Management Agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana), bnpb.go.id.
“This sudden incident caused dozens of students and workers to be crushed by falling construction materials,” it stated.
Although the number of victims remains unclear, at least 67 people were killed due to building design error, according to detik.com. Of those, police have identified 58. In addition, the school lacked a building permit, according to Subandi, regent of the Sidoarjo Regency.
“We will halt construction if there is no permit,” Subandi told detik.com. “We don’t want this tragedy to happen again.”
The Indonesian Minister of Public Works, Dody Hanggodo, said only 51 of more than 42,000 Islamic traditional boarding schools in the country have obtained the necessary licenses.
“It seems most of them are unlicensed. Only 51 buildings are recorded in our PBG system,” Dody reportedly said after meeting with Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar at the Ministry of Public Works in South Jakarta on Oct. 7.
Social media users noted the discrepancy of the state financing the rebuilding of an unlicensed Muslim building while harassing Christians whose applications for building permits are ignored.
“The Islamic traditional boarding school has no building permit (IMB), and its structure doesn’t meet the building standards – collapsed, killing 67 students – and will be rebuilt with the state budget, while a church establishment without a building permit will drive its pastor to prison,” a viewer of a video released by BBC Indonesia, kudonaripan, noted.
User edycahyono980 responded, “If a church is burned and damaged, can it be rebuilt with the state budget? Sorry, I’m asking seriously and in a gentle tone.”
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment Muhaimin Iskandar indicated that the state budget (APBN, Anggaran Pembiayaan dan Belanja Negara) could be used to reconstruct the Al-Khoziny Islamic Traditional Boarding School, detik.com reported.
“Al-Khoziny deserves assistance from the APBN, because if there are 1,900 students, where will they go to school? Will they be left living in tents? Will the government just sit idly by? To those protesting the use of the APBN, what is your solution? To the House of Representatives, where one or two members are protesting, what is your solution? With 1,900 students studying,” Muhaimin said after the signing of the joint agreement at his office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday (Oct. 14).
This statement drew criticism from various groups who argued that use of the state budget must take into account regulatory aspects and fiscal fairness, as state funds are intended for all.
“The Ministry of Religious Affairs is indeed one of the top five ministries receiving significant state funding,” Bonar of Setara said. “Besides supporting education, the funding supports not only groups such as Islamic schools and Islamic boarding schools but also Islamic organizations and community social activities. It’s of course a blatant favoritism.”
Indonesian society in recent years has adopted a more conservative Islamic character, and churches involved in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups, according to Open Doors.
