Last week, the Indonesian public was being shocked by the news about the arrest of 177 Hajj pilgrims from Indonesia by the Philippine authorities. The arrest was due to the using of Philippine passport by the Hajj pilgrims that they obtained illegally. According to reliable news sources, the Indonesian Hajj pilgrims is a victim of fraud syndicates that often dispatched Indonesian Hajj pilgrims by using passports of other countries. News of the arrests of the prospective pilgrims became viral as well as became such a highlight. A question then appear, why that “shameful” crimes could be happen?
Prior to looking further, we should know what is meant by the Hajj. Simply put, the Hajj can be defined as a form of an annual ritual performed by Muslims worldwide who are able to visit and carry out some activities at several places in Saudi Arabia at a time known as the Hajj season (fall in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah). Hajj has a very great value in Islam, and all Muslims who are considered capable (both in terms of financial, physical, and science) are required to perform the Hajj at least once in a lifetime.
Each year, Saudi Arabia, as the authority that have the responsibility of the implementation of the Hajj, gives a limit for the quota of Hajj pilgrims that may be deployed by each country around the world. Hajj quota restriction is absolutely necessary, given the limited capacity of the facility. Quota restrictions has been proportionally, taking into account the number of Muslim population in a country. Thus, Indonesia as the largest Muslim country in the world get a share more than other countries.
Unfortunately, a “sizeable” quota of Hajj for Indonesia is considered insufficient for the prospective of Indonesian Hajj pilgrims. A wide inequality is going on between the number of prospective pilgrims who register with the ones who get dispatched annually. Thus, the prospective pilgrims must be willing to “queue” for many years before they can be dispatched to the Holy Land. This inequality is beiing utilized by a number of “evil” syndicates. They lure a “shortcut” to prospective pilgrims who were waiting to be dispatched. One of the “shortcut” that being offered is utilizing the Hajj quota remaining from other countries besides Indonesia illegally. This modus operandi is the one that afflicts 177 Indonesian Haj pilgrims who were arrested by Philippine authorities some time ago.
The arrest of 177 pilgrims from Indonesia would be a hard blow, not only for the government but for the entire Indonesian pilgrims. All prospective pilgrims should adhere to all regulations related to the departure of Hajj as stated by the government, no matter how high the enthusiasm to get going to the Holy Land. In addition, all prospective pilgrims should not be lured by the persuasion of certain parties that offer a “shortcut” to the Holy Land without guided by clear regulations. Nevertheless, the government still has a large stake so that similar incidents do not happen again in the future. A very firmly repression against the perpetrators of the syndicate may be one effective way to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents. Of course, such action should be accompanied by strict monitoring of the parties “rogue” who might try to repeat this shameful incident in the future.
