Jakarta Globe, Ezra
Sihite, August 16, 2013
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sought on Friday to defend Indonesia against
accusations that the republic was descending into greater religious
intolerance.
“It cannot
be justified if an individual or a group forces its beliefs onto others,” the
president said in an speech prior to Independence Day. “And certainly not with
threats, intimidation or violence.”
The
president called on the country’s rich diversity, emphasizing that
discrimination on religious grounds was contrary to the interests of the
country.
“I want to
remind all Indonesian people that the state fully guarantees the existence of
individual or minority groups,” he said. “We have to prevent violence that
disturbs the social fabric and national unity.”
Human
rights organization the Setara Institute recently criticized the government for
a lack of grit in cases of religious intolerance, allowing the branches of
discrimination to spread and vigilantism to take root.
National
agencies were behind only 60 of the 160 responses to incidences of religious
intolerance, while citizens instigated the remaining 100, the report said.
In March,
the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi district was demolished by Bekasi Public
Order Agency (Satpol PP) following objections from a hard-line group, Taman
Sari Islamic People’s Forum (FUIT). The church was still in the process of
obtaining a building permit.
In the same
month, Satpol PP sealed the Al Misbah Ahmadiyah mosque in Bekasi under the
authority of the city’s mayor, Rachmat Effendi, citing a regulation by the West
Java government and joint-ministerial decree on the embattled sect. The decree
prohibits the Ahmadiyah from proselytizing, but does not preclude the minority
religious group from conducting activities pursuant to their religion.
“Violent
conflicts happened because of weak leadership and regulations,” Maruarar
Sirait, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, said on
Friday. “Data show there are problems with the Ahmadiyah, conflict between
Sunni and Shiites in Madura, [embattled church] GKI Yasmin and others.
Upholding tolerance should be implemented with real action in the field.”
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