JakartaPost-Apr 10
As religious tolerance has stagnated in the past year throughout the country, West Kalimantan’s Singkawang was found to be the most tolerant city in the country while Banten’s Cilegon is the most intolerant, a study by human rights advocacy group Setara Institute revealed. The 2022 study measured the religious tolerance of 94 cities across Indonesia based on the regional regulations toward religious tolerance, social dynamics, actions by the city administration as well as each city’s social and religious demographics. Singkawang is ranked first, followed by Salatiga in Central Java in second place and Bekasi in West Java in third place. While Singkawang and Salatiga have usually been ranked high in Setara’s tolerance index, Bekasi is a success story, as it was ranked 93rd out of 94 cities in 2015, but it improved over time. By 2017, it ranked 53rd. Setara Institute researcher Ismail Hasani pointed out that Bekasi was among the 10 least tolerant cities when Setara first launched the tolerance index, but the city administration kept improving until it reached the top three in the 2022 index.
Meanwhile, the least tolerant city according to the 2022 index is Cilegon, followed by Depok in West Java at 93rd and then Padang in West Sumatra at 92nd. Ismail said leadership and discriminatory regulations were some of the contributing factors leading to intolerance in a city. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/04/10/west-kalimantans-singkawang-most-tolerant-city-bantens-cilegon-most-intolerant-setara.html.
