Jokowi Deserves Sad, This Country Has Not Been Able To Guarantee Freedom Of Worship

Photo: BPMI Setpres/Muchlis Jr

JAKARTA - President Jokowi deserves to be worried about the fate of freedom of worship in this country. He only spoke for a month, in Bandar Lampung another incident of prohibition of worship emerged.

The incident of disbanding worship was experienced by the Yat Daud Protestant Church (GPKD) congregation in Rajabasa Jaya Village, Bandar Lampung, which was carrying out Sunday services.

In the video, the worship that was taking place, suddenly stopped. A mother of a congregation member shouted hysterically when she had to accept the situation while leaving the church.

The Bandar Lampung Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) said the viral incident on social media was only a matter of miscommunication between the two parties. The head of the Bandar Lampung FKUB, Purna Irawan, said that the related parties that went viral on social media had succeeded in mediation with the Bandarlampung Police and the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag).

"We have indeed been able to mediate that, so first, we certainly want religious life in Bandarlampung City to be harmonized with maintained harmony, because this is our city together, so whatever the problem is, it can be resolved by deliberating," he said as quoted by Antara.

Previously, there had been meetings between the two parties, which agreed that the location would not yet be a church but a residence.

"So from the meetings it was agreed that the place was a residence, not a church. Because for the church building the requirements would be much tougher," he said.

Whereas a month ago, President Widodo (Jokowi) firmly said that the 1945 Constitution must be placed on the instructions of the regent or mayor. At that time, Jokowi 'expelled' the existence of the FKUB and the matter of agreements that were sometimes much more effective than the constitution.

"Don't let the constitution lose by agreement! The constitution must not lose by agreement. There is a meeting, FKUB (Religious Harmony Forum) for example, this is an agreement not to allow places of worship. Be careful, you know, our constitution guarantees that," said Jokowi when opening the Regional Head Coordination Meeting and FKPD throughout Indonesia at SICKC, West Java, Tuesday, January 17.

Jokowi reminded all Indonesian citizens to be allowed to embrace and worship according to their respective religious choices. In this case, the 1945 Constitution stipulates six official religions whose rights of its adherents should not be violated. The six religions are Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

"This is careful. These are Christians, Catholics, Hindus, Confucians, be careful. (They) have the same rights in worship, have the same rights in terms of freedom of religion and worship, be careful," said Jokowi.

According to him, Article 29 Paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution firmly guarantees for religious adherents to carry out their respective religions and beliefs.

"Once again guaranteed by the constitution. This must be understood. We all must know this problem. Our constitution provides freedom of religion and worship even though only 1, 2, 3 (religious adherents) in cities or districts, but be careful about this," he said.

Jokowi also admitted that he was concerned about the difficulty of one of the religious adherents who could not worship, because there was no house of worship in the city where he lived.

"Because I see it still happens. Sometimes I think as hard as I think about people who will worship? It's sad if we hear," he said.