by I Made Arsana Dwiputra (The CRCS Student batch 2011)

The Holy Water Tour to India is famous among to the Balinese Hindus middle class. They have a regular tour which they called as Tirta Yatra as we can see they promote at the local Bali’s daily newspaper. Tirta mean holy water and Yatra mean pilgrimage recall the pilgrimage of the Hindus’ holy man in Bali which followed by building a temple and sacred place with a spring. It develop recently in Bali and even their tour program spent more time in Singapore shopping malls and Universal Worlds than in dirt Gangga river bank or old city of Kurusetra; the legend epic of Mahabarata battle field, they refuse to called as a touristic tour. “We are pilgrims not tourists said one lady with a fancy DKNY sunglasses and hold a shopping bag of Singapore famous shopping malls in hand that I met and chat with at the Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport arrival”.

Wednesday forum is a weekly public discussion on various topics of religion and culture organized by CRCS and Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). The forum is held every Wednesday at 12.30 – 2.30 PM in room 306 (3rd floor) of UGM graduate school building. Since 2002 many scholars, students, and researchers worldwide have presented their papers or on-going research in this forum.

Anyone who wants to make a presentation in this forum should fill out the Wedforum-form and send it to wednesdayforum@yahoo.com and crcs@ugm.ac.id.

Mustaghfiroh Rahayu (kanan)

The existence of various religions in Indonesia, even before the declaration of independence, gives a major impact on public policy products. As a religion followed by the majority of Indonesia’s population, Islam becomes the most favorite ‘vehicle’ for many people to slip in variety of teaching, which they consider ‘Islamic value’ in a variety of existing regulations. There are at least three legal products in Indonesia that are allegedly having an excessive tendency of Islamization and an exclusive look that are being discussed in the Legislature, namely: Halal Product Guarantee Bill, Zakat Bill, and Hajj Management Bill. Moreover, the arguments of religion, especially for Islam, also take an important role in the Anti-Pornography Law, Marriage Law and Inter-Religious Harmony Bill.

Mustaghfiroh Rahayu (kanan)

Keberadaan berbagai agama di bumi Indonesia yang telah eksis sebelum proklamasi kemerdekaan, memberi dampak yang besar terhadap berbagai produk kebijakan publik. Sebagai agama yang dipeluk oleh mayoritas penduduk Indonesia, Islam menjadi kendaraan ‘terfavorit’ bagi banyak kalangan untuk menyelipkan berbagai ajaran yang mereka anggap ‘Islami’ dalam berbagai peraturan-peraturan yang ada. Setidaknya ada tiga produk hukum di Indonesia yang disinyalir memiliki tendensi Islamisasi yang berlebihan dan tampak eksklusif sedang dibahas di Legislatif: RUU Jaminan Produk Halal , RUU Zakat, dan RUU Manajemen Haji. Selain itu, argumen-argumen agama, terutama Islam, juga mengambil peran penting di dalam Undang-Undang Anti Pornografi dan Pornoaksi, UU Pernikahan serta RUU Kerukunan Antar Umat Beragama.

Wednesday forum is a weekly public discussion on various topics of religion and culture organized by CRCS and Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). The forum is held every Wednesday at 12.30 – 2.30 PM in room 306 (3rd floor) of UGM graduate school building. Since 2002 many scholars, students, and researchers worldwide have presented their papers or on-going research in this forum.

Anyone who wants to make a presentation in this forum should fill out the Wedforum-form and send it to wednesdayforum@yahoo.com and crcs@ugm.ac.id.

Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf | CRCS
The most welcome aspect of Indonesia’s democratization is probably political freedom. This is illustrated by the flourishing of social organizations as part of the resurgence of civil society.

However, a strong civil society, although idealized, is not always positive for democracy. This is especially true in a state with a weak central government.

A distinguished political scientist, Joel Migdal in his book, Strong Societies and Weak States: State-society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World (1988) warned of the risk of having a strong civil society in a state where the government lacked the ability to govern.