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One strange thing (to me) about Indonesian ID cards is that they have a compulsory field "Religion" where one must choose one of six possible religions: Islam,
by pingec 5y ago
One strange thing (to me) about Indonesian ID cards is that they have a compulsory field "Religion" where one must choose one of six possible religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. If one is without religion or follows another religion he must still pick one of those 6.
Another strange thing (to me) is the complex dependency between institutions. In order to be able to apply for various things like documents, benefits, scholarship, school admission etc. one needs approval from head of family then head of the village, then letter from the police and so on. Be on bad terms with any of these (individuals) and some government services are unavailable to you. I heard a story from and Indonesian about how he could not go to university because the head of the village didn't want to give him the letter that he needed to apply to university.
Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible. So one person must convert to the other's religion before they can be married.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- basementcat 5y agoA "religion" field in government documents is fairly common. In many countries, some tax revenues are given to religious institutions proportional to the number of citizens that belong to that religion.
- klmadfejno 5y agoThat doesn't make any sense if there's no non-religious category
- Cerium 5y agoWhere would the tax money go? /s
- m-p-3 5y agoTo /dev/null
- masklinn 5y agoThat would actually benefit the state (financially anyway) as it could just pocket the extra income. But afaik in Germany if you’re officially non-religious, or your declared religion is not party to the church tax system, you just don’t get taxed.
- nicbou 5y agoThis is correct. The Church Tax is only collected if you belong to denominations that collect it. The state takes a cut on the collection, so Church Tax indirectly benefits other citizens. On the other hand, it's pretty unsettling to be asked your religion when you register your address for the first time. The church in your home country can sometimes onboard you without your knowledge, and you end up paying the church tax. This happened to French and Italian friends.
- h0nd 5y agoIt is common in non secularized countries.
- hannofcart 5y agoI believe the reason why Indonesia does not list atheism in government forms is because in most Shariah influenced jurisdictions, atheism would amount to apostasy and hence be deemed a crime. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_athei...
- jhgb 5y ago> Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible. So one person must convert to the other's religion before they can be married. Ah, a strongly typed country!
- aruggirello 5y ago...with an enforced ACL.
- dqpb 5y agoThe US has “race” fields on most forms with equally ridiculous options.
- CamTin 5y agoThere's usually (always?) an "other" or "I would prefer not to say" option though.
- dqpb 5y agoIn my view, the categories they provide, and even the question itself perpetuates racism. I acknowledge that the data is useful for understanding communities. But the question should be reframed to not reinforce racism.
- tpush 5y agoIn that case even the mere presence of a field called 'race' is the ridiculous thing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- uyt 5y agoIt's weird to me that Confucianism is listed. That one is more like a philosophy? That's like listing cynicism/stoicism/utilitarianism/or-whatever-else-ism as a religion.
- novok 5y agoIt's basically saying 'I'm chinese-indonesian'
- emmab 5y agoIt's not strange. Many religions contain an absolute prohibition against denying your faith. It prevents any true believers in those religions from having government documents. It's fully intentional.
- dcolkitt 5y ago> "Religion" where one must choose one of six possible religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. If one is without religion or follows another religion he must still pick one of those 6. It always felt, to me, like the Dutch colonizers culturally transferred their concept of pillarisation[1] to Indonesian society. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillarisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillarisation
- novok 5y agoThe reason why religion is probably Mandatory(tm) is because Indonesia is an islamic country. You see similar behavior in other islamic countries in the middle east and their documents.
- langitbiru 5y ago> Also marriage between members of different religions is not possible. You can. But it's hard. So basically the main requirement of marriage is it must be performed in a religious ceremony. You cannot have a pure civil marriage in Indonesia. So the thing is.... the clerics, the priests are not fond of mixed-marriages. But there are marriages between Buddhist and Catholic, Christian and Catholic, Muslim and Christian. I'm an Indonesian. Also, there is a loop-hole. You get married overseas and register it in an Indonesian embassy.