Recognizing the Rights of Unrecognized “Faith Groups” through National Identity Card Policy in Semarang, Indonesia

This article discusses how the government recognizes and includes unrecognized faith groups on the making of national identity card. This article is based on an empirical research done in the Population and Civil Registry Office of Semarang City, Indonesia. The city holds a reputation as an inclusive and multicultural city which is interesting to see whether there is a contrast in terms of tolerance towards unrecognized faith groups. The research founds that while the court decision is recognized by the government, the lack of mandatory coordination and technical instructions from the central government left the Semarang Civil Registry Office inadequately reformed for adjusting their Civil Registrying procedures and the making of KTP. This issue substantially slowed the services, if not stopped altogether, towards indigenous religious minority groups. However, being as a reputable tolerant city with syncretic culture, Semarang has much less institutional animosity towards unrecognized faith groups groups than other regions.