Politic of Religious Pluralism in Indonesia: State and Future

This article which aimed at (1) describing religious pluralism as the context of “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (Unity in Diversity), (2) revealing prominent issues in politic of religious pluralism in Indonesia, and (3) analyzing prospect of political policy of religious pluralism in Indonesia, discusses some points of insights. First, religious pluralism is natural fact and socio-political consensus that be sociological basic of “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” as national motto of Indonesia. Second, there are prominent issues linking to politic of religious freedom in Indonesia, namely: 1) inconsistence of governmental regulations against constitutional provisions on freedom of every citizen to follow any religion and worship according to his/her religion and faith, 2) strengthen of religious conservatism leading to violent extremism which shows ineffectiveness of state policies in preserving religious pluralism in Indonesia, and 3) politicking of religious identity and sentiment in electoral politics. Third, prospect of political policy on religious pluralism is functionally determined by working of three agenda; 1) formulation of regulation which is in line with basic norm of constitution, 2) abolition of discriminatory regulations in local level, and 3) formulation of national rule which intentionally prohibits politicking sentiment of ethnic, religion, race, and inter social group in electoral politics in Indonesia.