Topic: Religion and the state: how far apart a constitution puts them
How does Indonesia mark Religion and the state: how far apart a constitution puts them?
Everyday topic
Article 29(1) of Indonesia's constitution is a single sentence, and it is the strongest sentence among these seven constitutions: the state is based upon belief in the One and Only God. It is not a clause guaranteeing religious freedom; it is a declaration about what the state itself stands on — divinity in the foundation, rather than in the list of citizens' rights. Freedom comes in clause (2): the state guarantees the freedom of every inhabitant to adhere to their respective religion and to worship according to that religion and belief. Taken together: the state has a premise about belief, and under that premise each person's own belief is protected. This is the exact opposite direction from Brazil's Article 19, which forbids government to establish or subsidise religion, and from Japan's Article 20, which bars state organs from any religious activity at all; and it differs from the American clause too — Indonesia names no particular religion, but writes belief in God into the foundation of the state. The same sentence is also the first of the five founding principles, which gives it a weight in Indonesia far beyond that of a constitutional article.
What is this topic?
The very first line of Article 29 of Indonesia's constitution is that the state is based upon belief in the One and Only God. Brazil's Article 19 runs the other way, forbidding the Union, the states and the municipalities to establish religions, subsidise them, or maintain relations of dependence or alliance with them. Japan's Article 20 goes further into detail — no religious organisation may take privileges from the state, and public authorities are kept out of religious teaching and observance altogether — with Article 89 barring public money from religious bodies. The American First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. China's Article 36 guarantees freedom of belief but protects "normal religious activities" and states that religious affairs are not subject to foreign domination. India's preamble calls the republic secular, while Article 25 includes the right to *propagate* religion. Taiwan's Article 13 is seven characters long: the people have freedom of religious belief.
Sources and dates
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