"I think if the condition has got back to normalcy, it is time to resume the full hajj quota," he said on the sidelines of his visit to Bogor, West Java, on Saturday evening.
Speaking to journalists after attending the commemoration of the 51st anniversary of Haul Al Maghfurlah Mama KH.TB.Muhammad Falak Abbas, he said Indonesia's full hajj quota was recorded at 210,000 pilgrims.
The resumption of the full hajj quota would push Indonesia for an excellent preparation to enable it to send as many as 210 thousand pilgrims to Mecca, he said.
Handling the hajj pilgrimage, however, is not an easy task, he said, adding that the cost of hajj for Indonesian pilgrims, for instance, must be determined rationally by considering the principle of sustainability.
ANTARA reported earlier that the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs urged the Saudi Government to increase the hajj quota for Indonesia at the 2023 Hajj Conference in early 2023.
"I hope our requests can be fulfilled, one of which is the addition of a quota," Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas noted in a recent press statement.
The minister and his staff departed for Saudi Arabia to attend preparations for the 2023 Hajj Conference held by the Government of Saudi Arabia.
The hajj conference discussed hajj preparations, starting from the pilgrimage quota, hotels, to food or catering for hajj pilgrims.
After two years of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2022, Saudi Arabia allowed one million international pilgrims to perform the hajj pilgrimage. Indonesia was allotted a quota of 100,051 pilgrims.
The government's 2022 hajj pilgrimage services were considered very satisfactory based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
According to BPS, the total pilgrims' satisfaction index rose by 4.54 points to 90.45 in 2022, from 85.91 during the implementation of the previous hajj pilgrimage in 2019. The figure recorded in 2022 was the highest since 2010.
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Translator: Rangga PAJ, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Anton Santoso
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