The Jakarta Post | Tue, 08/31/2010 9:47 AM | National

Many regions have issued sharia-inspired bylaws, to uphold “Islamic” identities or lure voters. Constitutional law expert Saldi Isra, a professor at the Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, talked to The Jakarta Post’s Ridwan Max Sijabat, following our earlier reports on such regulations across several provinces and regencies. 

Question: How do you see the mushrooming sharia bylaws in the regions?

Answer: I prefer to use the term “bylaws of religious nuance”, because similar bylaws have been issued not only in predominantly Muslim regions, but also in others with largely Christian and Hindu populations. 

The issuance of religion-inspired bylaws is made possible based on Law No. 10/2004 on law-making procedures which give space to the regions to issue rulings relating to their own uniqueness — this is understood [by local elites] as social, political, religion and cultural matters.

However, the religion-based bylaws are mostly issued following the implementation of the regional autonomy in 2001, which violates the 1999 and 2004 regional administration law which excludes religion, court, defense, financial and foreign affairs from the decentralization program.

Can the religion-based bylaws be justified under the Amended 1945 Constitution?

No. The Constitution guarantees the fundamental freedom of all citizens to have their own religion and adhere to their faith. 

The government and local administrations cannot interfere in internal affairs of religious life nor take a certain religion as basis to make laws because Indonesia is not a theocracy. 

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi has said sharia-inspired bylaws and regulations are not discriminative as they apply only to Muslims. Your comment?

Religion-inspired bylaws are not justifiable because apart from being against the regional administration law, they are discriminatory since they apply only to a certain religious community. 

Bylaws should be nondiscriminatory; they are public policies to which all citizens and communities in the regions must abide by.

What measures should be taken in response to religion-inspired bylaws?

All parties should be encouraged to bring the religion-based bylaws to the Supreme Court for a judicial review and the Supreme Court should maintain its neutrality in reviewing the bylaws. 

The persistent problem is that many have been reluctant to question the bylaws and bring their cases to the Supreme Court, to avoid sectarian conflict and maintain political stability.

Of utmost importance is that political parties and politicians must stop using religions as a political commodity because with such actions, religions are put in a ‘political jail’. 

Besides, the government should form a joint supervisory team to prevent regions from issuing discriminatory and overlapping bylaws and to set the legal procedure on dealing with religion-based legislation. 

How have political parties abused religions?

Following the downfall of former president Soeharto’s authoritarian regime and the implementation of the regional autonomy, many parties and politicians have used religion as a political commodity to win the hearts of voters, in a bid to win the general elections and local polls. 

Most religion-inspired bylaws were issued in 2005 throughout 2007 when the first-ever direct local elections were held to elect governors, regents and mayors.

In the past three years, religion is no longer a sexy political issue in winning local elections; most voters have become aware of issues of public welfare, which is more important to their lives than religious matters.

SUmber:http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/08/31/qampa-religionbased-bylaws-‘unjustified’.html