Condition of Local Beliefs in Indonesia

Indonesia is a country that is rich in diversity, including religion. Although Indonesia only has six legalized religions, Indonesia has a much larger number of other local beliefs. It is recorded that there are more than 187 local beliefs spread across Indonesia other than those that have been validated. A large number of existing beliefs in Indonesia implies that Indonesia has many adherents to local beliefs.

However, the large number of adherents does not make Indonesia have appropriate policies and regulations to accommodate their rights as adherents of a validated religion. For example, on identity cards, adherents of local religions cannot state their beliefs. When deciding to make an identity card, local believers were forced to choose one of the six religions that had been approved by the government. On the one side, they as citizens must have an identity card to be able to access and obtain their rights, but on the other hand, they must sacrifice their true identity as an adherent of local religion.

 Actually, in 2018 the Ministry of Internal Affairs promised to write local beliefs on identity cards, but this policy has not been realized until this day. The non-recognition of local beliefs makes believers feel like guests in their own area. Whereas local beliefs existed in Indonesia a long time before major religions such as Islam and Christianity came to Indonesia.

The government's lack of seriousness in making regulations on local beliefs has made this group increasingly marginalized and some local beliefs have been declared extinct, for example, the Dayak religion from Kalimantan. This is very unfortunate because local beliefs are Indonesian identities as well. It is hoped that the government will pay more attention to this issue, because in the law it has been stated that Indonesia guarantees the freedom of every citizen to embrace the religion that they want, including local beliefs.