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IL News 014/2012
Institut Leimena, in cooperation with Center for Indonesian Constitutional Jurisprudence (CIC Jure) and Hanns Seidel Foundation, held a seminar on “The Role of State in Guaranteeing Freedom of Religion in the Public, Nation and State Living” in Jakarta on April 24, 2012. The event was opened by welcoming remarks from Jakob Tobing (Institut Leimena President), Peter Witterauf (Hanns Seidel Foundation CEO), and Maruarar Siahaan (CIC Jure Chairman). It was attended by more than eighty people, including national politicians, religious leaders, and academicians.
The KOMPAS newspaper on April 26, 2012, reported as follow:
“JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The neglect of violation against religious freedom has showed that the state is not functioning. When the state fails to protect its citizens and guaranteeing religious freedom, various cases of violence and religious defamation will flourish. In the long run, public distrust will form and everyone will play by their own rules.
That’s the common thread from the discussion on “The Role of State in Guaranteeing Freedom of Religion in the Public, Nation and State Living” in Jakarta on Tuesday (24/04). The discussion—held by Hanns Seidel Foundation, Center for Indonesian Constitutional Jurisprudence, and Institut Leimena—featured the Constitutional Court Judge Harjono, human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, member of parliament Ali Maschan Moesa, and Wahid Institute researcher Rumadi.
According to Mulya, the violence against the Ahmadiyah community in a number of places, recent incident in Tasikmalaya (West Java), and the ban on the GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia churches, showed that the state is neglecting the minority. The state is not protecting the freedom of religion, which includes freedom of conscience and expression, as in the Constitution’s spirit.
The state should, he continued, enforce the law and protect the victims of violence regardless of their religious backgrounds. State intervention in the religious related cases should not violate the religious rights of citizens.
In Harjono’s view, the violence of a group of people in the name of religion against other group must be treated as a criminal act. If the violence continues without due process of law, then the state is not doing its function.
When the state is weak and inconsistent in doing its function, public trust diminishes. For Ali Maschan, religion should make people respect one another. When the opposite happens, there needs to be a redesign of theology and desacralization of religion (INA)”.