FPI files reports to police over hostile Palangkaraya welcome

In a March 2011 file photo, a group from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) rally outside the Bandung Cultural and Tourism Agency to protest the screening of Hanung Bramantyo’s pluralism-themed movie, ?. The protesters called the movie haram, or forbidden by Islamic law. (Antara/Agus Bebeng)The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) has filed a report to the National Police headquarters about the negative sentiment expressed by the Palangkaraya community in Kalimantan about their presence in the area.

The FPI accused five men: Central Kalimantan governor Agustin Teras Narang, Narang’s relative Lukas Tingkes, local youth figure Yansen binti and Sabran Sukron as those behind the local community’s protest on Monday against the FPI’s move to open a new regional headquarters in the area.

The FPI said the protest was organized to cover up local crimes.

“The masses have threatened to kill us here while at the same place they have burned down a stage that was provided for us by those who invited us,” Munarman of the FPI told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Munarman, a former legal aid institute (LBH) director, has also said that he has proof that shows that the protest against the FPI was undertaken to prevent the FPI from providing assistance to a group of locals whose indigenous land had been seized by private companies linked to the governor.

Thousands of people from various ethnic groups, mainly Dayak tribes, held a protest demonstration at the local airport in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan, to reject the arrival of a group of FPI leaders on Monday. The protesters said that the FPI were not welcome because they were known as a hardliner organization, and that their actions were not in line with the peaceful conditions in Palangkaraya.