In the latest development of legal strife between citizens and the government, Nurmahmudi rejected the State Administrative Court ruling in favor of the church project, which was halted following a hail of intimidation from mobs who claimed to represent local Muslims who didn't want to see a church built in their neighborhood.

Nurmahmudi argued that the church simply cannot be built at the designated site because the project has stirred social unrest as evident from the wave of unruly protests.

As reported in the media, the mayor says that he would reject any plan to build any place of worship if local residents reject it, otherwise it would only cause social tension. So he immediately vowed to appeal upon knowing that the West Java Provincial Administrative Court in Bandung ruled in favor of the church last week.

Settling the dispute in court is the right option and Nurmahmudi's plan to appeal is perfectly acceptable as long as no pressure of any kind is exerted to intimidate judges as happened in the trials of "misguided" sect leaders in Jakarta in the past.

However, his reason to revoke the permit issued by his predecessor is fundamentally questionable in the first place. What could possibly happen if all government bureaucrats shared his line of thinking - that a place of worship may be built only if nobody has any objections?

Probably no place of worship would exist in any area where believers of a religion, be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist, belong to the minority because there will always be some bigots from the so-called "majority" religious group in the particular area who object to the plan.

If the government inclines to cave in to the vocal militant's will, where else can the minority possibly seek legal protection? The public expected that at least the Depok municipal administration would have facilitated dialogs, between the church and the protesters, for mutually acceptable solutions.

Nurmahmudi once said he was seeking a substitute site for the church project. This gesture sounded like a good option but it is unlikely it would be a solution because the substitute may be too far from the particular Batak community.

As we know, the Indonesian Protestant church is diversified into some 300 denominations and HKBP is only one of these, which almost exclusively accommodate the Batak ethnic group as the name suggests.

People from other ethnic groups would not likely come to this church because the service is conducted mostly in Batak language that sure sounds like gibberish to them. The same barriers apply to other churches.

Nurmahmudi, a former chief of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), granted permits to 10 out of 34 applications for houses of worship buildings since he was elected in 2005, according to local statistics.

Protestants account for 4.4 percent and Catholics 2.4 percent of Depok municipality's 1.4 million Muslim-majority population. Together, the Christians have 62 churches, which is inadequate and many have to use houses or hire public buildings to worship.

Caving in to the mob pressure will eventually put the fate of the minority at the mercy of the majority. If the Hindu majority in a certain area is tolerant enough, they would allow their Muslim neighbors to build a mosque. If the Muslim majority is sympathetic, they would not mind their Buddhist neighbors building a temple, and so on.

The Depok mayor's determination to revoke the church's building permit has raised some eyebrows from the outset.

The project management had all the necessary official documents and when they commenced it, an intimidating mob came and ransacked the site. As in countless similar incidents elsewhere, the local government officials and security officers sided with the mob.

In Indonesia, procuring official permits to build houses of worship involves unimaginably complicated procedures, a stark irony in a country where freedom of religion and worship is guaranteed by the Constitution.

A 2006 joint ministerial decree challenged by leaders of minority religious groups requires that to build a place of worship, the project committee must have the consent of 60 people from different religion(s), 90 from congregation members in the neighborhood and from the Inter-Faith Forum (FKUB), before they can submit the proposal to the government.

The resistance of the mayor to the Administrative Court ruling can be easily (mis)interpreted as the official support for the use of violence and intimidation as means to achieve a goal.

If such official bullying tactics prevail, you shouldn't be surprised to see a lot more copycats.

Popular

Growth without gain: Why Indonesians don't feel the economy

Three dead after landslides strike North Sumatra highway

US, Iran no closer to ending war as Gulf clashes flare