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How Indonesia Restored Confucianism's Legal Recognition

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How Indonesia Restored Confucianism's Legal Recognition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

In 1965, Indonesia's Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on the Prevention of Religious Abuse named Confucianism as one of the religions held by the Indonesian population, alongside Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism and Buddhism, giving it formal standing among the country's recognized faiths.

That standing did not last. Presidential Instruction No. 14 of 1967 stripped the recognition, linking Confucian practice to China and to communism under Suharto's New Order government and restricting its open observance for more than three decades.

The reversal came on 17 January 2000, when President Abdurrahman Wahid issued Presidential Decree No. 6 of 2000, revoking the 1967 instruction and restoring Confucianism's legal standing. Wahid paired the decree with the declaration of Chinese New Year as a national holiday and an affirmation of the equal rights of ethnic Chinese citizens, addressing the same community the 1967 ban had targeted.

What the 2000 decree changed for Confucianism in Indonesia was ending more than three decades in which the faith could be practiced but not openly recognized, restoring it to the list of officially acknowledged religions it holds today, one of six named alongside Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

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