The Jakarta Post, February 9, 2006
Padang mayor defends sharia as good for development
Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang
Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar dismisses concerns about his mayoralty's gradual
enactment of sharia, arguing that Islamic law is beneficial to development because it
makes people more devout.
Fauzi told The Jakarta Post it was the duty of the state to encourage people to live
according to religious teachings, not to prevent it.
"Don't politicize the Padang mayoralty's intention to enact sharia law, we just want to
help the people perform their religious teachings as guaranteed under state laws," he
said.
Academics and politicians have expressed alarm at the central government's inaction
amid a flood of religion-based regional regulations with, they say, the potential to
upset relations between religious groups, especially in encroaching on freedoms of
minorities.
Fauzi, describing himself as serving the public, said one of the people's needs was
religion, which he believed was identical to the need for economic improvement for
better welfare.
"Does religion hinder the government's effort?...It even helps it, right? So if I do
something related to religion...so people are more devout...it will surely help improve
morality, thereby boosting regional development as security will be assured,
adolescent delinquency can be curbed and crimes reduced."
The mayoralty issued a bylaw in 2003 obliging junior high school students to be
proficient in reciting the Koran, and since then has given an instruction on female
students and civil servants to wear the headscarf in public, recommended crash
courses in Islamic teachings during the Ramadhan fasting month as well as study
sessions every Sunday morning for students.
Last month, it asked all mayoralty employees to pay alms from their monthly salary.
The Padang mayoralty is one among many regencies and cities in West Sumatra
which have introduced such regulations. They have cited the customary law of Adat
Basandi Syarak, Syarak Basandi Kitabullah, or that the Minang people of West
Sumatra are a community with traditional rulings based on Islam, as justification for
their introduction.
Like Padang, most cities and regencies have bylaws requiring the wearing of the
headscarf by students and civil servants, as well as the ability to recite the Koran,
beginning when they are young. Elementary school students who cannot read the
Koran cannot move on to junior high, and people must be able to recite Koranic
verses to marry.
For Sudarto, director of Pusaka, a non-governmental organization promoting pluralism,
the wave of regulations shows religion being manipulated by those in power.
Whenever government officials use religious language, with all its powerful emotional
associations, the public tends to support it, he said.
"What's happening in West Sumatra is like a trend to use religious symbols by heads
of administrations to win the people's hearts...and other regions merely 'copy-paste'
the bylaws from other regions on religion."
Seven district heads and other civil servants in Limapuluh Kota regency were sworn in
late last month at a mosque in line with sharia.
Sudarto said there was not universal acceptance of Islamic law, but it was only
supported by particular groups.
"I deplore regional administrations' efforts to concentrate only on such miscellaneous
things...it would be much better for them to give priority to improving public facilities,
school buildings and public services to all groups without any discrimination," he said.
"It's no longer time to uphold the issue of the Minang's past because times have
changed drastically."
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