House to summon Bogor mayor

The House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing law will summon Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto and other officials to discuss a disputed Protestant church in the Taman Yasmin housing complex, Bogor.

“We need to seek clarification from the mayor himself. We need to find out what are the problems that preventing him from obeying the Supreme Court’s ruling that runs in favor of the church,” legislator Benny Kabur Harman of the Democratic Party, who led the meeting, said on Tuesday.

Legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who was also at the meeting, said that a higher official might have spurred the mayor to refuse to honor the court’s decision.

“I’ve heard that even Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi himself stated that the ruling should be in line with the will of the majority. Thus, if a superior official had issued such provocative statement, then what can we expect from a mayor like him but to obey the minister?” she said.

Benny said that the commission would seek clarification from the minister. “We will send him a letter asking about progress on the problem.”

Representatives from the Taman Yasmin Protestant Church came to the House to ask for support in their dispute with the Bogor administration.

Jayadi Damanik, a church spokesman, said the congregation had knocked many doors before, but none had been opened to them.

“We have fought in court and gained a victory but still the mayor insists on not issuing the building permit to us,” he said.