'Real Islam' in action in Indonesia:
The Religious Courts Are Agents of Reform.
by Tim Lindsey and Cate Sumner*
http://www.theaustralian.com.au|
AS part of his continuing efforts to engage with the Islamic world, US President Barack Obama recently revisited Indonesia, a country he knows more about than most world leaders.
Living in Indonesia as a boy from 1967 to 1971, "Barry", as he was known, experienced first-hand the complex diversity of what is now the world's third-largest democracy and its largest Muslim society. He knows this country can so often confound the lazy assumptions of casual observers.
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Islam in Indonesia is a case in point. Sometimes described as Islam with a smiling face, Indonesian Islam has been sullied in recent years by a noisy minority. The toxic combination of the violent terrorism of Jemaah Islamiyah (Indonesia's home-grown al-Qa'ida affiliate), vigilante gangs such as the Islamic Defenders Front, inter-religious civil wars in eastern Indonesia, and local governments legislating conservative versions of sharia have all given the impression to some outsiders of an incipient takeover by hardliners.
As a result of attacks such as the Bali bombings of 2002, many Australians see Indonesian Islam as a threat, as Lowy Institute polls over the past five years have consistently shown.
As Obama would know, Islam in Indonesia has many more benign faces, and these are usually more important in the lives ofordinary Indonesians.
Ibu (Mrs) Suciwati found this when she made a reluctant appearance in Indonesia's Islamic courts earlier this year. Known as the Religious Courts, their main work is family law for Muslims. Ibu Suciwati's parents arranged her marriage when she was 14, two years below the age at which girls can legally marry. This meant her marriage was not registered and her three children did not have birth certificates, as do 60 per cent of Indonesian children under five, according to UNICEF.
After five years of marriage, Ibu Suciwati's husband left to work on another island and never returned. She later learned he subsequently remarried.
Naturally, she wanted a formal divorce to evidence the fact her household was now among the 14 per cent of Indonesia's 65 million households headed by a woman. But because she ekes out a tenuous existence, Ibu Suciwati thought she couldn't afford it.
Then Religious Court staff advised that her case could be heard by a circuit court when judges travelled to a village near hers, thus slashing her travel costs. Better still, the judges would waive court costs because of her poverty.
They first formalised Ibu Suciwati's earlier non-legal marriage and then issued the divorce certificate she wanted. This has meant her three children all have birth certificates, showing both parents' names, and have been able to enrol for national school examinations.
Obama would understand why Ibu Suciwati's experience matters. For much of his childhood, his mother, Ann Dunham, was effectively head of his household. Of course, as an American and an aid worker, she could offer Obama opportunities Ibu Suciwati can never hope her children will enjoy. Nonetheless, in both cases it is the mother who plays a crucial role in determining what becomes of the children.
The key to her family's hopes of escaping the poverty trap is Ibu Suciwati's access to the Religious Courts to formalise her legal identity. This was possible for her only because of the innovative circuit courts and fee-waiver programs these courts have introduced, supported by the Australian government's aid agency and the Family Court of Australia.
The Indonesian government has now approved a significant budget increase for these initiatives, and the secular courts are looking to adopt them as well.
The result has been a tenfold increase in access to the Religious Courts for the poor. Counter-intuitively, nearly two-thirds of applicants in the Religious Courts are women. Most win their cases. Like Ibu Suciwati, their ability to document their role as female heads of household gives them access to the government's social welfare programs, including cash transfers, free health treatment, subsidised rice and enrolment of children at state schools.
Indonesia's transition to democracy after Suharto's fall in 1998 was driven in part by Muslim organisations. The work of the Religious Courts over the past five years is a fresh example of the potential of Islamic institutions in Indonesia to act as agents for reform, development and social justice. It shows their willingness to engage with government, civil society and non-Muslim foreign institutions to achieve objectives that both judges and litigants see as "real Islam" in action.