Hallelujah: Members of the HKBP Pondok Timur Indah congregation being led by black-robed priests, Lupida Simanjuntak (right) and Pieterson Purba, walk to their church’s empty grounds in Ciketing Asem village in Bekasi to attend the Sunday mass. The service was without incident. Previously, the local Public Order officers and police had prevented them from holding services at the premises. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
Around 1,200 people supported a Sunday service near the National Monument Park in Central Jakarta, in an act of peaceful protest against the state’s silence toward the persecution of religious minorities.
Waving state flags at half-mast, protesters, grouped under the Forum for Religious Freedom and Solidarity, were stopped by authorities from approaching the State Palace where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was busy with preparations for the Independence Day ceremony on Tuesday.
The palace area was cleared for the celebration of the 65th anniversary celebration.
The group, including members of the congregation of HKBP Pondok Timur church in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, who have since last year faced religious persecution from Islamic hard-liners and intolerant local residents, pleaded to police to let them through, saying “Please understand us; We were evicted from our place of worship.”
The forum also included members of several organizations including the Institute for Democracy and Peace (Setara), the Wahid Institute, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and several public figures.
The Christian members of the protest started the Sunday service at around 1 p.m. near the Arjuna Wiwaha statue on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, after police blocked their way to the Palace.
Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari, who joined the protest, condemned the government’s lack of action in handling the matter.
“I urge the President to show his leadership. Authorities, including the police, the Home Ministry
and the Religious Affairs Ministry, will follow their leader. And they are the actors who can solve this issue,” the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle legislator told The Jakarta Post.
“The President did not dare act because the Islam Defenders Front [FPI] was formed and nurtured by his seniors in the military.
“Police were also too scared. This is the last term of his presidency; he should dare to raise his voice to overcome this problem,” Eva said.
Islamic Community Forum (FUI), with which FPI is affiliated, was reportedly behind the fifth attack on the HKBP Pondok Timur congregation last week, leaving up to 20 people injured.
Rev. Erwin Marbun from the solidarity forum urged the government to take action to settle any religious issues, including the HKBP Pondok Timur case.
“We want a really fair solution, not just moving the ‘wound’. Bekasi administration has in fact already offered a substitute site for the HKBP Pondok Timur congregation, but it is too far away for them. The government has to act as a mediator for both sides,” he said.
A church minister of the GPIB Galilea church in Bekasi, Rev. Martinus Tetelepta, said “It’s OK that
the police did not allow us to perform our service near the Palace. No one wanted to be here, neither the police nor us. And these police officers were just doing their duty,” he told the Post while shaking the hands of several officers guarding the area.
Contacted separately, presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha explained President Yudhoyono’s Sunday schedule.
“In the morning, the President inspected the preparations for the Independence Day ceremony at the Palace. He also inaugurated the 2010 Paskibraka national flag raising team in the afternoon,” Pasha said in a text message sent to the Post. (ipa)
