Indonesia is No Model for Muslim Democracy - NYTimes

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25/05/2012 23:58Indonesia Is No Model for Muslim Democracy - NYTimes.com

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OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

No Model for Muslim Democracy

Anthony Russo

By ANDREAS HARSONO

Published: May 21, 2012

Jakarta, Indonesia

IT is fashionable these days for

Western leaders to praise Indonesia as

a model Muslim democracy. Secretary

of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has

declared, If you want to know

whether Islam, democracy, modernity

and womens rights can coexist, go to

Indonesia. And last month Britains

prime minister, David Cameron, lauded Indonesia for

showing that religion and democracy need not be inconflict.

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 Indonesias 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 meansa bastion of tolerance. The rights of religious and ethnic minorities are routinely trampled.

While Indonesias Constitution protects freedom of religion, regulations against

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blasphemy and proselytizing are routinely used to prosecute atheists, Bahais, Christians,

Shiites, Sufis and members of theAhmadiyya faith a Muslim sect declared to be deviant

in many Islamic countries. By 2010, Indonesia had over 150 religiously motivated

regulations restricting minorities rights.

In 2006, Mr. 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 lackofficial registration. More than 400 such churches have been closed since Mr. 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. Mr.

Yudhoyonos government is reluctant to take them on because it rules Indonesia in a

coalition with intolerant Islamist political parties.

Mr. Yudhoyono is not simply turning a blind eye; he has actively courted conservative

Islamist elements and relies on them to maintain his majority in Parliament, even granting

them key cabinet positions. These appointments send a message to Indonesias population

and embolden Islamist 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; Mr. Yudhoyono claimed he

had no authority to intervene.

Christians are not the only targets. In June 2008, the Yudhoyono administration issued a

decree requiring the Ahmadiyya sect to stop spreading interpretations and activities that

deviate from the principal teachings of Islam, including its fundamental belief that there

was a prophet after Muhammad. The government said the decree was necessary to prevent

violence against the sect. But provincial and local governments used the decree to writeeven stricter regulations. Muslim militants, who consider the Ahmadiyya heretics, then

forcibly shut down more than 30 Ahmadiyya mosques.

In the deadliest attack, in western Java in February 2011, three Ahmadiyya men were

killed. A cameraman recorded the violence, and versions of it were posted on YouTube. An

Indonesian court eventually prosecuted 12 militants for the crime, but handed down paltry

sentences of only four to six months. Mr. Yudhoyono has also failed to protect ethnic

minorities who have peacefully called for independence in the countrys eastern regions of

Papua and the Molucca 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 Peoples Congress, beating dozens and killing three people. While protesters were

jailed and charged with treason, the police chief in charge of security that day waspromoted.

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 I.C.R.C. 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.

Mr. 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


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A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 22, 2012, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: No

Model for Muslim Democracy.

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worship. He must also make it crystal 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 be deserving of Mr. Cameron and Mrs. Clintons praise.

Andreas Harsono is a researcher for the Asia division at Human Rights Watch.

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Indonesia is No Model for Muslim Democracy - NYTimes