EDUCATION BILL THREATENS FURTHER STRIFE

INDONESIA

15 July 2003

Indonesian Christians have been targeted a by new bill which will force their private schools to build mosques and employ Muslims to teach Islam.

On 11 June the Indonesian Parliament finally passed the hotly debated Education Bill. The section which has aroused particularly fierce passion is Article 13, which states that all schools which have over 10 students of a particular faith must provide a teacher of the same faith to teach them their religion. A place of worship would also have to be provided.

Despite the apparently fair wording, Article 13 will have an unjustly disproportionate affect on Christian schools, whilst leaving Muslim schools untouched. The best schools in Indonesia are private Christian schools; because of their standards many Muslim children are entered, up to 65% in some schools.

Private Muslim schools are not so sought after and the number of Christian parents who seek to send their children to such schools is so small that no Muslim schools will be affected.

Not only is this bill resented because it effectively targets only Christian schools; but it will in fact turn the very ethos of these schools on its head. The fear is that, instead of Islam being taught in an objective way (as should be the case in a Christian school in the West), the lessons will actually be used as a proselytising tool. These schools were originally set up by missionary organisations; the irony is that now they are faced with the prospect of having to pay for Islam to be preached to their students. At present all parents who enter their children are required to sign an agreement stating that they have no objection to their children receiving a Christian religious education. Because there are no known cases of forced conversions, Muslim parents are clearly willing to make this ‘sacrifice’ in order for their children to receive a good all round education.

Some of the legislators admitted that proponents of the bill are aiming to use it to exert influence over Christian schools. Mr Marbun, a former member of the National Commission on Human Rights said to the Straits Times that “There is a trend to islamise our education system, which could threaten our nation’s mission to educate the people.” Ministers and other eminent Indonesians send their children to Christian schools and those who are worried about the potentially ‘Christianising’ affect Indonesia’s schools have on the future ruling elite, are gaining a louder voice.

Some have attacked the new law as state interference in the individual’s right to believe. Gus Dur (former President Abdurrhaman Wahid) stated quite bluntly on television (9 June) that he believed it was a tactic to erect an Islamic state. Some political leaders of predominantly Christian areas have threatened to break away from the republic.

There is one mitigating point that is meant to lessen the impact of the new law; if schools decide not to provide the stipulated lessons and places of worship, the article will not be enforced. The working committee’s chairman, Anwar Arifin, said “We will leave the monitoring of the article to the public as part of social control and punishment.” Baring in mind Indonesia’s increasingly volatile religious climate, such a declaration is very disturbing for the Christian community.

PRAY

Many Christian schools have declared that they will ignore this legislation, pray that God will protect them from those who may try to force the schools to comply.

Pray that Christian schools will continue unhindered to be a light for Christ in Indonesia

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