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With Indonesia’s ‘heresy app’, religious harmony hasn’t a prayer
- ‘Smart Pakem’ allows users to report groups practising unrecognised faiths or unorthodox interpretations of the country’s six official state religions
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Rights groups have hit out at a new app from the Indonesian government that lets the public report suspected cases of religious heresy, arguing that it will aggravate persecution in a country already grappling with vigilante violence against minorities.
Users of the app can report groups practising unrecognised faiths or unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia’s six officially recognised religions, which include Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism.
Launched last week by the Jakarta Prosecutor’s Office, “Smart Pakem” is available for free in the Google Play store. It features a list of religious edicts issued by the country’s top Muslim clerical body, information on blacklisted organisations and a digital complaints form, which replaces the former cumbersome process of submitting a written accusation to a government office.
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Information on the app will be updated every two months in accordance with data gathered from the religious affairs ministry, religious leaders and other sources of intelligence, the prosecutor’s office said.
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“Now we can digitally keep tabs [on forbidden religions],” said Yulianto, an assistant in the office’s intelligence unit, during the app’s launch event. “Before the app people had to fill in complaint forms, which can be troublesome, so through this app we can easily find out the location of the informant so we can quickly follow up.”
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