The Indonesian House of Representatives has approved a bill that requires citizens to state their faiths on legal documents, a regulation criticized for continuing discrimination against minorities, a media reported here Saturday.

The civil registrations bill, endorsed on Friday after a tense debate, still requires citizens to state one of the six religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, recognized by the government on their identity cards.

Activists said the requirement will continue discrimination against people of minority faiths.

The debate over minorities proved a sticking point in the bill's deliberation, with three political factions, the secular Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Christian Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Muslim United Development Party (PPP), rejecting the final draft.

"We need more time to rehash this bill, but if this plenary session insists on endorsing it, we opt to sit out," PDI-P faction leader Tjahjo Kumolo quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

A legislator said endorsing the bill would go against the Constitution, which guaranteed all Indonesians the freedom to worship.

Emerging from negotiations, the three factions surprisingly backed down from their demands and endorsed to bill with some reservations.

These included the rewording of the bill's article 105 on the government's obligation to record the marriages of people from minority faiths, who have been denied their basic rights.

This would require the government to record people's religions for census data. However, it is not clear whether this would mean believers of minority religions would be allowed to write their faiths.

Another key article in the bill requires the government to give every citizen a single identification number within the next five years.

It also states civil registration is a basic right, which must be available to all citizens free of charge.

Source: Xinhua