TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs released the latest 2019 interreligious harmony index (KUB) report which records the country's score to be above average at 73.83. This categorizes Indonesia as "highly harmonious."

"This number has increased compared to last year's score of 70.90. But this is still below the 2015 index score of 75.36," said Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi on the ministry’s official website on Wednesday, December 11, 2019.

Fachrul also said that the trend of scoring above 70 had persisted since 2015. The aspects considered in the index are tolerance, equality, and inter-religious cooperation.

Each Indonesian province is also scored for its harmony index. Those scoring above average are; West Papua (82,1); East Nusa Tenggara (81,1); Bali (80,1); North Sulawesi (79,9); Maluku (79,4); Papua (79,0); North Kalimantan (78,0); Central Kalimantan (77,8); West Kalimantan (76,7); North Sumatera (76,3); South Sulawesi (75,7); Central Sulawesi (75,0); Central Java (74,6); Yogyakarta (74,2); West Sulawesi (74,1); Southeast Sulawesi (73,9).

Meanwhile, the provinces that scored below the national average interestingly include the special autonomy region of Aceh, which adopts the sharia law and Indonesia's capital of Jakarta.

The complete list is as follows; East Java (73,7); East Kalimantan (73,6); Gorontalo (73,2); Bangka Belitung (73,1); Lampung (73,1); Riau Islands (72,8); N. Maluku (72,7); S. Kalimantan (72,5); S. Sumatera (72,4); Bengkulu (71,8); Jakarta (71,3); Jambi (70,7); West Nusa Tenggara (70,4); Riau (69,3); Banten (68,9); W. Jawa (68,5); W. Sumatera (64,4); Aceh (60,2).

AHMAD FAIZ IBNU SANI