Jakarta. A state administrative Djohermansyah Djohar recently called for the establishment of an agency dedicated to handling the hajj pilgrimage and have it part of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

The Religious Affairs Ministry today has a directorate-general for Hajj and umrah. However, the directorate-general tends to adopt a “bureaucratic approach” in its hajj management rather than prioritizing its services, Djohar claimed. 

And this is why the government should change the directorate-general to a separate hajj body whose employees shall come from the Hajj Fund Management Agency (BPKH). The government then can integrate this hajj agency with the Religious Affairs Ministry. The religious affairs minister should lead this yet-to-be-built agency in an ex officio capacity, according to Djohar. 

But Djohar said that this system was nothing new. 

The integration of ministries and agencies has already taken place in some bodies. For instance, the National Development Planning Agency is now integrated with the ministry of the same name. National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa is also the chair of this agency. The same goes for the Investment Coordination Board with its ministry. Indonesia has also integrated its national land agency under the agrarian affairs ministry.

"The ‘embryos’ came from personnel at BPKH. We can merge the BPKH with the Hajj directorate-general. Once merged, we can make a hajj agency with the religious affairs minister as its head, … and it will be more service-oriented and cut the bureaucratic red tape, Djohar said.

Djohar added: “But this system calls for everyone to work together. It should also be well-supported by the minister.”

According to Djohar, such a merger can help prevent the dualism in hajj management. It can also solve many problems, including better management of the pilgrims’ accommodation and addressing hajj scams. The government will also have more authority to manage the hajj funds, which amount to Rp 160 trillion ($9.8 billion).

“A directorate-general structure is inflexible. Having an agency will make it more flexible, and shall be able to respond to what the pilgrims need. We need an out-of-the-box format. The existing format cannot deal with the hajj problems, and I think creating a standalone ministry is quite costly,” Djohar said.

Djohar's remarks came after House of Representatives member Said Abdullah proposed the idea of establishing a standalone hajj ministry.