Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
BY C. A. O. VAN NIEUWENHUIJZE
field much more closely than to the field of religionand how could
it be otherwise ? Generally speaking, a ministry of religion can
mean nothing but an infringement upon religious freedom, as every
governmental regulation in the field of religion means in principle
the end of religious freedom. Even allowing for the Indonesian tinge
referred to above, the ministry's attitude cannot be anything but
pro-Muslim. If it were otherwise, it would not be able to survive.
It seems in fact that neither the minister nor his secretary-general
would oppose the replacement of the present status of Indonesia by
that of a Muslim state. But in the present situation they can take no
initiative in that direction. They will be confined to strengthening
the Muslim influence and the position of Islam wherever they can.
One of their main objects will be education.
Before the transfer of sovereignty, religious education was possible
in public schools. Religious organizations were offered the oppor-
tunity to send teachers to teach religion for one or two hours a week,
the pupils being free to attend. Roman Catholic and Protestant
clergy* have made use of this opportunity wherever they found their
adherents in public schools. They received no payment. On the
Muslim side, hardly anyone used this opportunity before the war,
out of lack of interest and because there were no officials correspond-
ing to the Christian ministers who could have given these lessons
free. In the post-war period, some Dutch officials stimulated Muslim
religious teaching in public schools in order to restore public morals.
They sometimes went so far as to furnish payment for lessons. There
was even a general regulation introduced for the whole of Indonesia,
according to which religious lessons had to be paid for out of public
funds. But it was only regionally put into effect. All this has led to
the Muslim insistence that in all public schools and for all classes
lessons in Islam should be given, to which is often added the stipula-
tion that the Government should pay all teachers involved regardless
of their qualifications, and that the lessons should be made com-
pulsory for all pupils considered to be Muslims. These lessons, where
they have been given hitherto, appear to have met with very little
success. Most of the teachers chosen are so old-fashioned that they
do not understand the pupils, and the pupils for their part do not
understand them. Scholastic teaching of this kind does not fit into
the pattern of public school education. So far no attempts have been
made to teach Islam in a modern, non-scholastic manner; and there
is a tendency to continue these unhappy experiments.
In the post-war period, the same Dutch officials tried to cope
with the socially dangerous problems of the absence of organiza-
tion in Islam as a religious body by promoting and even subsidizing
several types of Muslim organization. Their aim was, again, to restore
public morals by the creation of some kind of spiritual leadership,
and more often to gain political influence with the rather reactionary
102 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSIONS
group of Muslim traditionalists, who were not too well satisfied with
the consequences of the national revolution. They forgot that bodies
like these, being connected with the Colonial Government, would
never be acceptable to real nationalists and that they were therefore
ruining whatever spiritual leadership remained after the Japanese
occupation, while at the same time they were failing to build up a
new one. Most of the organizations thus constructed were composed
of traditionalist Muslim leaders who had lost a good deal of their
influence in the occupation period and afterwards. They appeared to
be completely sterile, though they cost a good deal of money. Most
of them still exist, claiming, whenever they come in contact with
government officials, to be the representatives of the Muslim masses,
but having no real contact with these masses at all. They endanger
religious freedom by the controlling powers which they usurp on the
faulty basi of their quasi-official position and of their financial
background in official funds.
These attempts at regulation go so far as to assume the position
of states within the State, interfering with public education and
jurisdiction, giving an official status and official payment to the
officials of mosques and other functionaries. Their constant inter-
ference with governmental affairs and their endless demands cause
hopeless confusion in the official machinery. Moreover, the existence
of these bodies may cause all kinds of discrimination, especially as
regards incidental decisions taken by local officials which never come
into the open. They hamper the healthy growth of the Muslim com-
munity as a religious community in the modern sense of the word; a
growth that would be of the utmost importance for the future of
Indonesia as a modern State. They stimulate the line of thought
peculiar to the ancient Muslim church-state, without taking into
account its ultimate results for Indonesia, simply because their own
attitude belongs entirely in the reactionary Muslim sphere. By main-
taining these bodies, the Government is thwarting its own efforts to
help Indonesia to become a modern State. None the less, if the
present Government ever dared to plan the liquidation of these
bodies it would have strong opposition to contend with. The
members of these bodies would propagate among the Muslim masses
the idea that such action represented an assault on Islam. The
seemingly official position of these organizations is completely in
accordance with the average Muslim's opinion of what a Muslim
organization should be, even though he has no say in it at all. To the
champions of the Muslim State these bodies form, moreover, the
first stepping-stone towards the realization of their ideal. Out of
their midst one attempt has already been made to create a body
with the same semi-official status that would embrace all existing
local and regional bodies of this kind. It has failed, because its
initiators were too clearly attempting to ensure positions for them-
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN INDONESIA IO3
selves. It is not, however, at all certain that a second attempt would
also fail. If combined with Muslim attempts to overrule Parliament,
it might well succeed. The only condition is that it should be well-
timed and launched at a moment when the Muslim masses can be made
to feel that Islam is being threatened. At present, the general situation
is too confused to make the success of such an attempt at all likely.
Apart from all this, there is the general feeling that government
officials should be Muslims. This feeling varies in strength in the
different regions. In the State of East Indonesia, for instance, there
is a feeling of discontent among the Muslims at the fact that,
relatively speaking, so many members of the Cabinet and high-
ranking officials are Christians. In the United States of Indonesia's
centres, too, there are some indications of strong Muslim influence.
The thesis of 'Ketuhanan' (the acknowledgement of the supremacy of
God Almighty), which occurs in the Constitutions both of the
Republic of Indonesia (in Djogjakarta) and of the United States of
Indonesia as one of the five pillars of the State, is, though not purely
Muslim in its formulation, mainly derived from Muslim thought,
and systematically interpreted in a Muslim sense.
The situation in Indonesia at the time of writing is characterized
by the fact that the Muslim majority does not and cannot see a
problem of religious freedom except in terms of the full and un-
hampered realization of the ideals of theoretic and traditional Islam.
Those who see it otherwise are a very small minority. Wherever the
problem comes in its full scope into public discussion, it is dealt with
without reference to principles; and whenever decisions connected
with religious freedom have to be taken, incidental decisions are
reached which are for the most part casuistic compromises which
may well become dangerous precedents for the future.
The present situation as regards religious freedom gives little
ground for hope or satisfaction, however ideal the legal provisions
may seem to be. Wherever religious freedom is postulated, in either
constitutional or non-constitutional documents, it is less the fruit of
five years' struggle for freedom and independence than something
put forward merely for the sake of a consequential accommodation
to modern thought. The ideals of spiritual and religious freedom,
though alive among a small lite, have yet to be instilled into the
Indonesian people for the good or the whole nation.
The future of religious freedom may thus be regarded as
extremely uncertain. It is liable to all kinds of infringements arising i
out of the political struggles of a country whose government has
inevitably some totalitarian tendencies, and out of a spiritually
divided and sterile Muslim community which kills the revivifying
forces in its own body, while claiming Indonesia for Islam.
1
C. A. O. VAN NlEUWENHUIJZE
DJAKARTA, May 1950.
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