Letter: The key is adherence to the law

Regarding the front-page headline in the Sunday Post (Feb. 13) that reads “Government urges restraint over calls to ban Ahmadiyah,”. If the government wants to be a real government instead of the ghost government it has been — allowing non-state actors to usurp its power and authority — it has only one choice.

And that choice is not to “urge” anything. Rather, its choice is to demand adherence to the law of the country under which all people are regarded as equal and all enjoy the constitutional freedom to worship as they please.  

Any less is merely more vapid political rhetoric that has led Indonesia to where it is today: Watching extremists (irrespective of their motivation) punish “deviants” and “infidels” with impunity. There is no grey area in the rule of law.

If the Ahmadiyah community in Banten or Christians in Central Java can be persecuted without consequence, who’s next?

This is a very slippery slope down which Indonesia has been sliding, and for which the government has the antidote, if it has the political and ethical courage.

Eran Fraenkel
Bogor, W. Java