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Tanah Abang church braces for imminent closure
Members of the Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) congregation in Jatibaru, Central Jakarta, are bracing themselves for a scheduled eviction from their place of worship later this week over a 54-year-old land dispute
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embers of the Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) congregation in Jatibaru, Central Jakarta, are bracing themselves for a scheduled eviction from their place of worship later this week over a 54-year-old land dispute.
GBIS Rev. J.W. Sheno said that to prepare for the eviction, scheduled for Aug. 6, the congregation had prepared for the worst by organizing a group of people who would defend the site from local thugs and public order officers on Aug. 6, the reverend said.
“We are doing our best to prepare a legal defense to keep the church in our possession, but we are also ready to deal with those people on Aug. 6 if there are no promising results,” Sheno said.
He said the congregation had filed reports to several institutions, including the Indonesian Ombudsman and the Judicial Commission, calling on them to call off the eviction, which was based on a 1957 Supreme Court verdict.
Clerks from the Central Jakarta District Court informed the congregation on July 26, that the church building would be evicted based on a Supreme Court verdict dated Jan. 31, 1957.
The court finally executed the verdict on behalf of the family of a Tanah Abang native, Lukman Alatas, who claimed ownership of the land on which the church was constructed.
The legal dispute concerning the ownership of the 300-square-meter plot of land dates back to more than 50 years ago, when Alatas and the late Tjo Wie Ho agreed to set up a business partnership. After a fallout, Alatas annulled Tjo’s ownership of the land.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Alatas in 1957, but no action had been taken by the Central Jakarta District Court until now.
The neighborhood chief of Kampung Bali sub-district, Muhammadong, said that legal wrangling over the land had been going on for years.
“I must stress that this legal challenge is against the church building and not the congregation as a Christian organization. People should not take this issue as religiously motivated,” he said.
Muhammadong said that the GBSI did not have a permit to build a place of worship on the land. (msa)
