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span class="inline inline-left">Show of support: Former first lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid (left), widow of former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, accompanies members of the besieged GKI Yasmin Church congregation on a visit to the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Wednesday to discuss the protracted dispute over their church’s building permit. JP/Ricky YudhistiraSinta Nuriyah, the widow of former president and religious pluralism icon Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, lambasted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to uphold religious freedom after several of his ministers skipped a meeting at the House of Representatives aimed at resolving a dispute over a church in Bogor.

Shinta said she was disappointed that Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto failed to show up at a joint hearing with House lawmakers over the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) at the Taman Yasmin housing complex that was sealed by Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto.

She attended the hearing to show her support for the church.

“The government is like a turtle who always hides its head in the face of trouble. Such a government must be toppled,” she said in the meeting, which was presided over by lawmakers Eva Kusuma Sundari and Lily Wahid, who have consistently advocated for the rights of the Yasmin congregation to be able to worship in their own church.

She said the President had bowed under pressure from two small groups of hoodlums who had launched acts of intimidation against the GKI adherents.

Djoko could not attend the meeting as he had to join a Cabinet meeting, House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said.

This is the second time that the House has had to postpone the meeting, after government representatives failed to show up for the first meeting, which had been scheduled to take place on Dec. 16.

Religious Affairs Minister Surya-dharma Ali, who also failed to attend the meeting, denied the government was downplaying the Yasmin issue, adding that the meeting’s postponement was in no way an indication that the government did not intend to resolve the issue.

Under pressure from two radical groups, identified as Forkami and Garis, Diani sealed the church building, which is still under construction, and its construction permit was frozen by a decree issued on March 11, 2011, claiming that the church’s followers had lied on their application for the permit. But a ruling by the Bandung Administrative Court, which was later affirmed by the Jakarta Administrative Court and the Supreme Court, annulled the mayor’s decision after church adherents presented evidence that their neighbors in the housing complex had raised no objection to the church.

Spokesman for the Yasmin GKI church, Bona Sigalingging, and the two lawmakers also expressed their disappointment with the government and the police who apparently were reluctant to execute the court’s verdict and enforce the law in the face of assaults and intimidation launched by the two hard-line groups.

Bona said the situation around the church remained tense every Sunday when supporters of the extremist groups would gather to prevent churchgoers from worshipping in their church. “Last Sunday, churchgoers, including our guests Eva and Lily, were driven out [by the hard-liners] and forced to leave the church, under the gaze of police.”