The major duties and strategies of Minister of Religions Fachrul Razi Batubara

Fachrul Razi Batubara is now nearly three months minister of religions in Indonesia and many of his activities are mentioned in the media. Just a selection. His personal situation: I guess that he is of a Batak origin, South Tapanulu, because of the Batubara, a Batak clan-name added to his name now. He was born somewhere in Aceh in 1947: many people from Batakland had much better education than people in Aceh and teachers, and other government officials were in good number of Batak origin. Quite curious: his personal wealth was made public. He owns some large plots of land, had some fine cars, and his total wealth is worth about € 1.5 million (in US$ it would be 1.7). He made a few nearly doctrinal statements last weeks, as I found on the site kumparan.com. He sees no clear command in shari'a about veil for women, but does not forbid woman to cover even their faces as government officials. But they should not have the idea that is is more pious to be so heavily clothed. For the coming school season the word khilafa for caliphate will be omitted from school books because the terminology is not relevant now and here.
On 4 January 2020, commemorating the founding of the Ministry of Religions in 1946, he complained that there was too much Hengky Pengky or corruption and extortion in the ministry. In two months time he had to handle 60 cases of extortion in the ministry, leading to dismission or only lowering in rank of officials. In most cases it was not the clientele of the ministry but officials extorting their own staff. (A few years ago there was a research about the helpfulness of Indonesian officials and the Ministry of religions scored lowest in this respect!

On 9 January Fachrul Razi was in Abu Dhabi and commented on the modernization in Arab countries. He found it strange that in Aceh all cinemas were now closed and movie watching not allowed in public, while there are several cinemas in Jeddah, in the country where the prophet was born. In Indonesia he gave a suggestion about the curriculum of the religious primary and secondary schools, the madrasah. Besides Indonesian, Arab and English also Mandarin should be possible, because we pray that God may give us good things in this life and the hereafter. We must not forget this world and Chinese will become an important language for business and trade.