A newly installed lock seals the only entrance to a 1000-square-meter block of land in Jejalen Jaya subdistrict, Tambun Utara, Bekasi, where Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church congregation plans to build a church for its 500 members. The Bekasi regency administration sealed the land Tuesday despite its promise to facilitate a dialogue between church officials and local residents protesting against the construction. JP/Hasyim Widhiarto
The congregation of a church in Bekasi has reported the regency administration to the National
Commission on Human Rights after it sealed off their would-be church premise without giving prior notice.
Four members of Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church filed their report at the commission’s headquarters in Menteng, Central Jakarta, hours after the administration sealed off the site of their under-construction church Tuesday morning.
“We’ve been very badly deceived,” HKBP official Tigor Tampubolon told The Jakarta Post after meeting with commissioner Jhonny Nelson Simanjuntak.
“There has been no dialogue, despite what the Bekasi administration promised us.”
The administration sealed off the building site in Jejalen Jaya subdistrict following a series of protests by local residents over the legality of the church.
Dozens of public order officers were deployed for the task.
Sudarno, deputy head of the so-called Bekasi Interfaith Forum (FKUB), who supervised the sealing, said the move had been taken to “ensure stability in the subdistrict”.
However, he declined to comment on whether the forum or the administration would help the congregation find another place to build their church.
“We’ll discuss that later,” he said.
On Sunday, more than 100 members of the HKBP were forced to hold services under tight police security, after hundreds of Jejalen Jaya residents rallied to demand the congregation stop all religious activities and the church construction be halted until a building permit had been obtained.
Bekasi regency secretary Dadang Mulyadi, who arbitrated in the dispute, then promised to facilitate a meeting between the HKBP church elders and Jejalen Jaya subdistrict leaders, scheduled for Tuesday.
He said Bekasi Regent Sa’duddin would lead the meeting.
However, instead of facilitating the meeting and negotiation, the administration sealed off the church without notifying the church.
“I was very shocked,” Tigor said.
“But we can’t do anything since no one from the church was at the site when it was sealed off.”
Established in 2000, the Filadelfia HKBP congregation in Tambun Utara, Bekasi, currently has around 500 members.
For nearly 10 years the congregation has held services at members’ homes. In 2007, they purchased a 1,000-square-meter plot of land to build their church on.
Church officials claim they had informed local residents and subdistrict officials that they intended to use the land for a church, with no objections raised.
The church construction committee then filed for a building permit with Bekasi administration. Their request, however, remains unanswered more than a year later.
In October 2009, the committee was given the go-ahead by the subdistrict to hold services on the empty land.
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