Waiting List Departs Hajj In Lebak Banten Until 2049

Illustration. The arrival of the Acehnese Hajj pilgrims to Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, Aceh Besar, in 2019. (ANTARA-Khalis Surry)

BANTEN - Waiting list for the departure of pilgrims for Hajj candidates (JCH) in Lebak Regency, Banten Province to the Holy Land reaches 26 years or until 2049. "Until today, the number of JCH registrants for Banten Province is 227,811 people and a waiting list of 230,206 people," said Lebak Regency executive officers from the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) of Lebak Regency, Hafidz Fahmi, in Lebak, Thursday 8 June, was confiscated by Antara. According to him, of the 230,206 Hajj waiting lists in Banten, for Lebak Regency are around 19,000 people who are on the waiting list and they have been registered online with an integrated computerization system to departure to the Holy Land of Makkah for 26 years or until 2049. The JCH queue is extended, because the registration process in Banten Province continues to grow and the departure quota for implementing the fifth Islamic pillars is relatively limited. Although the Hajj waiting list lasts will last for the next 26 years, the Lebak Regency Ministry of Religion Office continues to serve the people who register for Hajj. The queue for the Hajj list, he said, was due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. However, this year the JCH departure quota for Lebak Regency has returned to normal, reaching 962 people. "We hope that next year the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can add the hajj quota to Indonesia, so that the waiting list in Lebak is not too long," Hafidz said. According to him, the high number of people to register for Hajj due to various factors, among others, the level of awareness and understanding of Islamic teachings is quite good. In addition, also the national economic factor returns to normal after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, he said, most of those who registered for Hajj were from business people, traders, farmers, ASN, and private employees. In fact, Hajj registrants in Lebak range from 15 to 20 people per day. "We hope that JCH, who departed this year, will become a hajj major and return to the country in a healthy and safe condition," he said. Lebak Regent Iti Octavia Jayabaya stated that the local government every year submitted a proposal to the Indonesian Ministry of Religion so that there would be an additional hajj quota. Currently, the Hajj waiting list in Lebak has reached 26 years. "We hope that there will be an additional hajj quota, so it will not take too long," he said.

Head of the Banten Provincial Ministry of Religion, Nanang Fatchurochman, said that the departure of the Hajj pilgrims in 2023 for Lebak Regency has increased from the previous year, which was 962 people. The departure is divided into 4 groups, namely group 44 totaling 382 people, group 51 as many as 385 people, group 54 as many as 85 people, and group 58 totaling 110 people.

"We hope that next year the quota will be added, so that the waiting list can be reduced," he said. Meanwhile, Samsiah (58), a resident of Rangkasbitung, said that she registered for Hajj and did not know when she could be dispatched to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, because the number of pilgrims on the waiting list reached 26 years. "What is certain is that we will register first and hopefully there will be additional quotas, so that it will not take too long to implement the fifth Islamic pillars," he said.