Roads to Inclusive Citizenship

Kepercayaan after the Constitutional Court Decision 97/2016

Wednesday Forum – 4 September 2019

The Constitutional Court (MK)’s Decision 97/2016 on the state’s recognition of kepercayaan (indigenous religions) should be seen as paving the way for inclusive citizenship, a political normativity that includes forms of acknowledgements, expressions, rhetoric, public protests, as well as arguments accounting normative ideals of political communication and policy making. This talk will discuss a roadmap of an inclusively framed advocacy for indigenous religions, and a follow-up on developments after the MK decision. The roadmap will highlight the necessity for engagements with the plurality of indigenous religious groups, the other marginalized and mainstream groups, as well as policy makers. It will also argue that an inclusively framed advocacy is necessary, otherwise new cases of marginalization and discrimination against other groups of citizens will be inevitable.

Samsul “Anchu” Maarif, a faculty member of CRCS UGM, earned his Ph.D. in religious studies at Arizona State University in 2012. Besides working with communities of indigenous religions and NGO activists, he has published books and articles on indigenous religions, the latest of which is a CRCS report (as co-author) on social inclusion advocacy for indigenous religions.

Look at the full poster of this event here.