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or the umpteenth time we have heard President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono speak about his commitment to human rights protection and religious tolerance. But several cases recently give us countless reasons to doubt his rhetoric, simply because it is hardly ever translated into action.

In a repeat of his convincing words about the issues on Wednesday, Yudhoyono told foreign envoys, diplomats and representatives of international organizations operating in the country about his administration’s seriousness in handling human rights violations and religious violence.

It remains unknown whether they take Yudhoyono’s speech at face value, but continuing reports from international human rights groups and local media about the Indonesian government’s inability to address recurring acts of violence and intimidation of minority groups and violations of religious freedom are just too obvious to ignore.

Yudhoyono’s critics have pinpointed the absence of firm measures from the state, as a major source of impunity which protects those who take the law into their hands in the name of religion usually against minority groups. The state’s inaction continues despite support from mainstream Islamic groups like Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah to do otherwise.

The government’s decision to play it safe rather than uphold its responsibility to take bold action in upholding the state ideology and the Constitution has not only justified acts of violence against minority groups, but has also nurtured a culture of intolerance.

In the case of persecution against followers of Ahmadiyah sect, which the Indonesian Council of Ulema has declared heretical, the state’s failure to play a role as the guardian of all citizens had directly and indirectly contributed to the killings in the Banten area of Cikeusik over a year ago. Worse, 12 people convicted in the fatal incident received only between three and six months of jail sentence and have all been freed.

Similarly, it is the state’s disrespect of the rule of law that has denied the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin congregation their freedom to worship since the Bogor mayor sealed a plot of land where they built their church in Curug Mekar subdistrict in 2010. The mayor’s policy is in blatant defiance of the Supreme Court’s legally-binding verdict, which acknowledges the congregation’s right to build and utilize their house of worship.

So, the president’s address to the international community on Wednesday missed the point. Both international and domestic audiences have over and over again heard him declare that his administration draws a clear line concerning democracy, including the promotion of human rights and freedoms. The whole world has simply not seen and has waited for too long for him to put his works into action.

It was perhaps the public impatience that triggered a mass action on Tuesday to demand disbandment of the hard-line group the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), which is notoriously known as a self-appointed moral police force and therefore has frightened law enforcers to act against it.

Yudhoyono’s stated worries over the potential for renewed sectarian conflict in Maluku are hardly an excuse for ignoring his duty to take decisive measures against the hard-line groups in restoring the state’s power to maintain security and order and uphold the law.

The President can preach about many things, but his constituents will ask for concrete action. As the most prominent cartoon animator Walt Disney put it, the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Hopefully Yudhoyono is, or was, an admirer of Disney.