Religious Affairs Ministry grows faster, better, and stronger

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Religious Affairs closed the last chapter of its services during President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) presidency by holding the Religion Festival event in Jakarta on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) night.

The event also marked the start of a new chapter in providing religious affairs services during President-elect Prabowo Subianto's presidency.

In the last decade of Jokowi's presidency, the ministry has clocked numerous achievements. The journey of time has led the Ministry of Religious Affairs to a continuous transformation process, both in terms of religious and religious education services, to improve and become more resilient.

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Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas illustrated the ministry's sustainable achievements in the last 10 years with three keywords: faster, better, and stronger.

He underlined the word "sustainable" as three religious affairs ministers served during the 10-year period of President Jokowi's presidency, with Lukman Hakim Saifuddin and Fachrur Razi as Qoumas' predecessors. The three are bound by the common goal of continuing to maintain harmony in communities and improving the quality of religious life.

"What and who we are today with all the achievements we have is from the long history of this ministry, where each person in different periods has laid the bricks of their achievements," he remarked.

Faster

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has demonstrated a faster process in serving the community. According to the minister, this is inseparable from the myriad breakthroughs made by the ministry in public services.

For instance, the ministry's Pusaka SuperApps, launched on November 25, 2022, has integrated almost all its online services into one application that is designed to be disabled-friendly.

A faster process is also found in the halal certification services. From 2019 to 2024, halal certification services certified 5,302,257 products as halal. The halal certification process has been made shorter, thereby only taking eight to 11 days.

The acceleration in halal certification services also has an impact on job creation. So far, more than 120 thousand people are involved in the services as auditors, supervisors, and assistants for the halal production process.

Qoumas noted that with its swifter services, his ministry was named as having offered the best public services in 2023 and the best implementer of public service innovations in 2024 by the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform.

Better

In the last decade, the ministry has provided services that continue to improve for the better, as reflected in the Hajj services, Religious Affairs Office services, and religious education services.

During Jokowi's presidency, there were nine Hajj pilgrimage periods, with services in the first four periods considered satisfactory, while the last five periods were considered very satisfactory by the pilgrims based on a survey by Statistics Indonesia (BPS).

The revitalization of 1,206 Religious Affairs Offices also resulted in better public services. In addition to increasingly adequate infrastructure, the offices' services are supported by digitalization and online systems.

Public access has been made easier and more efficient, as confirmed by the community satisfaction index for the services that reached 83.26 or categorized as high.

Regarding the aspect of religious education, madrasahs (Islamic schools) are currently one of the main choices for students and residents. This is inseparable from the notable achievements of madrasah students.

"The school that bagged the most medals in the 2024 Science Olympiad is a madrasah, namely the Malang 2 State Madrasah Aliyah," he remarked.

The increasing public trust is confirmed by the change of more than 40 madrasahs to become state-run madrasahs. In fact, recently, the proposal to make 39 madrasahs and 10 Christian religious education units as state-run schools has also been approved by the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has also inaugurated Dhammasekha as a formal Buddhist religious education in Indonesia.

The accreditation of State Religious Higher Education Institutions has also increased by 160 percent, from seven to 18 religious universities, which are currently accredited as excellent.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has also established the Syekh Nurjati Cyber State Islamic University, which is the first Islamic cyber university. Currently, 4,200 students are served with remote learning programs, and half of them receive the Rising Indonesia Scholarship (BIB).

For economic strengthening, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is implementing the Pesantren Self-Sufficiency program, with more than 3,600 pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) creating 432 pesantren-run enterprises.

Training programs within the Ministry of Religious Affairs have also been more effective and efficient with the presence of the ministry's Pintar massive open online course. Since its launch in 2022, as many as 1,332,209 participants have received training services. Meanwhile, if carried out offline in person, the training programs can only reach 70 thousand participants per year.

Religious harmony is needed for better progress. To preserve harmony, the ministry is making efforts to strengthen religious moderation.

As a result, the religious harmony index has continued to increase in the last five years, which is in the high category (60.01–80.00): 67.46 in 2020; 72.39 in 2021; 73.09 in 2022; 76.02 in 2023; and 76.47 in 2024.

Moreover, the Social Piety Index of Indonesians is also high, with 82.53 recorded in 2020; 83.92 in 2021; 84.55 in 2022; 82.59 in 2023; and 83.83 in 2024.

Stronger

The Ministry of Religious Affairs, as an institution, has also grown to become stronger.

During the 2018-2023 period, the ministry's bureaucratic reform was categorized as very good, based on the assessment of the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform. The index stood at 74.02 in 2018 and 78.18 in 2023.

From 2016 until now or nine successive times, the Ministry of Religion has also received an unqualified opinion from the financial reports audit conducted by the Indonesian State Audit Board (BPK).

The Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform also bestowed an award for the implementation of digital transformation in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. During the 2023 evaluation, the ministry's Electronic-Based Government System was categorized as very good, with a score of 3.58. The Ministry of Religious Affairs was also named an informative public body by the Central Information Commission in 2023.

In the corruption prevention aspect, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) placed the Ministry of Religious Affairs in rank II among ministries in agencies in the Highest Achievement on National Strategy Action for Corruption Prevention. The commission gave a score of 91.13 to the ministry.

Furthermore, recently, the Ministry of Religious Affairs' Statistical Development Index was categorized as good based on the Sectoral Statistics Implementation Evaluation by BPS.