PSI Vows To Fight For Religious Freedom in Indonesia
The party promises to ease the permit process for building houses of worship and to push for anti-corruption laws
The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) pledged to continue fighting for the ease of building houses of worship for all religious adherents, said PSI Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Grace Natalie at an interfaith dialogue in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday.
“We reaffirmed PSI’s commitment that PSI has not changed from the past until now, it will always fight for the ease of establishing houses of worship, the ease of worshiping. That will continue to be PSI’s struggle,” Grace said.
The interfaith dialogue was attended by representatives of religious leaders from all beliefs recognized in Indonesia, who had a dialogue with PSI General Chairperson Kaesang Pangarep, Grace Natalie, PSI Board of Trustees Member Isyana Bagoes Oka, PSI Deputy General Chairperson Andy Budiman, and PSI Banten Regional Executive Board Chairperson M Hafiz Ardianto.
Grace mentioned that the discussion mostly focused on the issue of licensing for building houses of worship, especially for religions that are minorities in Indonesia.
According to the representatives of religious leaders, Grace said, many minority houses of worship do not have permits because of the difficulty of obtaining them. Grace emphasized that the issue would be one of the issues that PSI would fight for if it passed to parliament in the upcoming election.
Grace, who is one of the founders of PSI, also explained some of the issues that PSI would prioritize if it succeeded in entering the House of Representatives, such as free health insurance and the enactment of the Asset Seizure Bill.
“We will fight for the Asset Seizure Bill, which has actually been pushed by Mr. Jokowi since the beginning of the period. But there is no one who responds to it in parliament, if PSI is there later, the priority besides free health insurance is asset seizure. So that the corruptors are afraid to corrupt because they are afraid of being poor,” Grace said.
Previously, PSI, which participated in the election for the first time in 2019, failed to enter the House of Representatives because it did not meet the parliamentary threshold. In the 2024 Election, the General Election Commission (KPU) set the threshold for political parties that are entitled to a seat in the Senayan Parliament at 4 percent.
PSI is currently joining the Indonesia Maju Coalition along with the Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Gelora Party, and the Garuda Party. The Indonesia Maju Coalition nominated the presidential-vice presidential pair Prabowo-Gibran for the 2024 Election.