On 25 January 2021, the Centre for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration (CHRM2) University of Jember organized a meeting with Samsul Hadi, the Director of the Indigenous People and Beliefs at the Ministry of Education. Samsul visited the Centre as part of his vision to build networking with higher education and academia at the University of Jember, specially to promote broader protection and fulfilment of indigenous rights.
In this special occasion, he also asked professional consultancy from the Centre to prepare presidential decree draft on the fulfilment of indigenous rights. The duration of consultancy is six-months starting from January to June 2021. The presidential decree is required as part of the government’s effort to provide broader protection for the rights of indigenous people. The Centre then assigned Al Khanif, the director and one researcher, Adam Muhshi. Another academic who will get involved in this six-month project is Dodik Suprihatin, a criminal law specialist from the Faculty of Law, University of Jember.
It has been widely known that most indigenous people in Indonesia suffered from economic development. Additionally, before the Constitutional Court adopted a verdict in 2016 on the recognition of indigenous belief, many believers of indigenous beliefs have been discriminated against and often stereotyped by society and the government as “less-religious people”. The Presidential Decree draft is expected to end this discrimination and hence no people indigenous people will leave behind national development.