Religion and Philosophy in Indonesia
Islam Mosque
Christian Church
The development of religious
life in Repelita VI is directed towards the stabilization of a harmonious
religious life as reflected by the enhancement of faith and devotion to the
One and Only God, improvement of the believers participation in development
through education in the family and expansion of religious means and
infrastructures.
The main policy of religious
development in Repelita VI, covers promotion in the quality of faith and
devotion to the One and Only God among religious followers in an effort to
strengthen the national unity, encourage their participation in development,
increase the practice of religious life both in private and in social life and
improve the Haj-pilgrimage services and boost religious education at all
school levels.
Based on those policies, the
Government underlines 7 (seven) main programs namely : the improvement of
religious information and guidance, means for a religious life, better haj-pilgrimage
services, religious education for primary schools, secondary schools and
higher education, religious institutions and workers.
Beside those main programs, the
Government also launched six supporting programs namely: promotion of the
younger generation, the role of women in religious research education and
training and religious law counseling.
Back to Top
RELIGIOUS INFORMATION AND
GUIDANCE
Religious information and
guidance is directed towards the improvement of faith and devotion to the One
and Only God, a harmonious life of the believers and their role, expansion of
religious teachings to strengthen the spiritual, moral and ethical basis to
develop and maintain the national union and unity.
Religious guidance and
counseling are provided by the Government, and by religious institutions and
all people through various mass-media and fora.
These activities are supported
by the distribution of 787,700 copies of religious information material and
13,000 copies of booklets on religious teachings.
In the framework of a
harmonious religious life, the Government conducts meetings among
inter-religious leaders and scholars among various religious leaders and the
Government.
In 1997/98, inter-religious
leaders and religious leaders had meetings on 2 (two) locations with 240
participants, a meeting among religious leaders and the government in one
location attended by 40 participants, meetings among religious leaders in nine
locations attended by 106 participants and three meetings among
inter-religious scholars attended by 120 participants.
The meetings yielded various
ideas to overcome problems related to a harmonious religious life. These
meetings motivated the inter-religious followers to improve the national
unity.
To support and motivate the
community to meet their needs in religious life covers several activities such
as: financial aid for means and infrastructure for houses of worships, the
construction of Marriage and Marital Advisory Halls (BNPP), supply of
Holy-books and the promotion of religious services.
Back to Top
IMPROVEMENT MEANS AND
INFRASTRUCTURES FOR WORSHIPS
Improvement of the means and
infrastructure for worship is carried out through financial aid for the
construction and rehabilitation of houses of worship in order to support the
active participation of the community to meet their needs to worship.
In 1997/98, the Government gave
financial aid to construct and rehabilitate houses of worship for 2,354
mosques, 243 Protestant-churches, 202 Catholic-churches, 146 temples and 54
viharas. Besides, the Government supplied financial aid for 806 houses of
worship in schools and higher education campuses.
In the fourth year of Repelita
VI, the Government built 683,016 houses of worship, consisting of 609,774
mosques, 31,758 Protestant-churches, 14,860 Catholic-churches, 22,407 temples
and 4,217 viharas. In 1996/97, only 667,373 houses of worship were built,
which was 15,643 less.
The construction of Marriage
and Marital Advisory Halls (BNPP) is aimed at improving government services to
the community in promoting family welfare through marital counseling.
Through BNPP, religious
services to the community are more professional a/o. through the improvement
in the quality of marital registrators (PPN) and their assistants.
Back to Top
In 1997/98, the Government held
upgrading courses for 1,156 marital registrators and 868 assistants. Besides,
the Government constructed 72 BNPP buildings and rehabilitated 40 others with
priority given to new administrations and remote areas.
In 1997/98 the Government
constructed 3,400 BNPP buildings, mostly in provincial sub-districts, to
provide larger and faster service.
In 1997/98, the Government
supplied 962,350 copies of Holy-Books, consisting of 802,300 Korans for
Moslems, 49,000 Bibles for Protestants, 43,000 Bibles for Roman Catholics,
40,500 Weda Books for Hindus and 27,500 "Tri Pitakas" for Buddhists.
If compared with that in 1996/97, it increased by 147,499 copies or 18.1%.
The promotion of religious
donations such as zakat, infaq, sadqah and wakaf (religious contribution in
the form of money and land respectively) is increased to support social and
productive activities in improving the people's welfare and alleviate poverty.
Therefore, the Government has established a council called Bazis in all
provinces to collect financial contributions.
To protect land contributions (wakaf)
for religious purposes and the peoples welfare, in 1997/98, the government
issued certificates for 12,191 plots of wakaf lands, which is more than the
11,578 plots in 1996/97.
Back to Top
IMPROVING HAJ-PILGRIMAGE
SERVICES
The improvement of Haj-pilgrimage
services is aimed at smoothening the Haj-pilgrimage for Moslems.
The number of Indonesian Haj-pilgrims
in 1996/97 was 199,100 pilgrims and in 1997/98, it increased to 201,000
pilgrims, reflecting a high religious consciousness and the people's economic
welfare.
The increasing number of Haj-pilgrims
was supported by the improvement of Haj-pilgrimage services covering
procedures, preparations, departure from Indonesia, services in Saudi Arabia
and their return to Indonesia.
In 1997/98, the Government
built transit dormitories for Haj-pilgrims at 5 (five) locations namely
Yogyakarta, Jambi, Palangka raya, Samarinda and Jayapura, and added 1 (one)
embarkation point in Balikpapan, so that haj embarkation dormitories are
available in Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Ujung Pandang, Surakarta and Balikpapan
and transits in 26 provinces.
Back to Top
Links
to other websites
Information provided by the Directorate
of Foreign Information Services, Department of Information, Republic of
Indonesia.
|