Issues of the day: Congregation booted out of meeting

Feb. 8, Online

Members of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin’s congregation from Bogor have been forced out of a meeting with the House of Representatives on Wednesday that was organized to solve the church’s problems.

Congregation leaders were officially invited by the House to attend a meeting arranged by House Commissions II, III and VIII - which oversee regional autonomy, legal affairs and human rights, and religion respectively - but were forced to move out due to objections from some House members.

Some House members demanded that the members of GKI Yasmin leave the meeting because they represented neither the House nor the government.

Others argued that it was unfair to allow members of the congregation to join the meeting without Bogor residents being represented.

After around 30 minutes of heated arguments, House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung asked members of the congregation to leave the room.

GKI Yasmin spokesperson Bona Sigalingging told the House members that the congregation would accept the decision.

Your comments:

Why was the House discussing an issue that the Supreme Court has already decided upon?

Isn’t this an encroachment of the court’s judicial power by the legislators? If they booted the Yasmin representatives out from the hearing, why didn’t they throw out Bogor’s criminal mayor also?

So much for the Indonesian legal system!

Emile H.
Jakarta

Hats off to GKI Yasmin for being so gracious and showing respect to the institution of the House.

This was the first time that they actually got to meet their alleged “representatives”.

Their first three scheduled meetings were “cancelled” for various reasons. Imagine: They were invited and stood up three separate times and then booted out when they did meet the legislators!

What a show of character and faith on behalf of the House.

Christine Pan
Jakarta

What was said in the meeting? Hopefully, there were positive developments. I do not expect the GKI Church will open.

It is not easy to break the mind-set of certain people in Bogor. They do not tolerate any religion but their own. It is strange to think that the Pancasila shield still graces the walls of official offices. What can we say about the attitude of House Representatives?

It seems the lawmakers are ignoring the Supreme Court. They are still doing the same thing they always did.

Widya
Bergen

Minorities suffer discrimination from the unconstitutional and anti-Pancasila bylaws in this archipelago.

Bona
Jakarta