Let me offer a quote from the UN Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes the freedom to change religion or belief, and the freedom, either alone or in community with others, in public or private, to manifest one's religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. | Fri, 02/06/2009 8:55 AM
Are edicts issued by the Indonesia Ulema Council (MUI) which ban smoking, voting abstention, and practicing yoga if it contains Hindu rituals such as chanting in line with human rights? I think, the edicts are not urgent. Why doesn't the MUI let the people, whom they consider to be protected, live in peace?
Doesn't the MUI realize that Indonesia is a pluralist state? If they want to set out their homogeneous goals publicly, that can only be done in certain places among those who want to accept it.
If the edicts are imperative, then who is our legal authority, the Indonesian government or the MUI? The intervention into legal authority and politics could create a bipolarity of power which will confuse the public.
Baltasar Mili
Yogyakarta
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