The Bureaucratization of Religion in Southeast Asia

This comprehensive report explores the bureaucratization of religion in four countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. This bureaucratization is a phenomenon that occurs through the use of administrative mechanisms to manage religious affairs in their respective jurisdictions. Through this process, civil servants receive the authority to undertake direct and ideological intervention in domestic religious affairs, negatively impacting not just religious, ethnic, gender, racial, and sexual minorities, but also members of the respective religious majorities. This report highlights five major features of bureaucratization of religion that limits individuals’ right to religious freedom: the use of national religious frameworks and administrative structures; the close relationships between quasi-governmental religious organizations and governments; the exploitation of administrative frameworks to shape the manifestation of religion; the rise of moral policing institutions; and the development of dual legal jurisdictions.