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Jatisampurna church controversy continues
Building up: Motorcyclists pass the construction site of St
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Building up: Motorcyclists pass the construction site of St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic church in Jatisampurna, Bekasi. Residents claim that the construction has been carried out without their knowledge or approval. (JP/Rangga D. Fadillah) (JP/Rangga D. Fadillah)
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span class="inline inline-none">Building up: Motorcyclists pass the construction site of St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic church in Jatisampurna, Bekasi. Residents claim that the construction has been carried out without their knowledge or approval. (JP/Rangga D. Fadillah)
Residents of Jatisampurna subdistrict in Bekasi have claimed the construction of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic church in Kranggan, Bekasi, is being carried out without their approval.
Sulaiman, 33, a resident of neighborhood unit (RT) No. 3 of community unit (RW) No. 3 in Kranggan, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that church activists had tried for years to persuade people living around the church to give their approval by distributing cash and free sembako (gifts of food).
'In 2006, a church activist came to my house and handed my late father Rp 100,000 [US$8.89] in return for a signature supporting the construction of the church. My father rejected it,' said the man, whose family had lived in the area since 2002.
Another resident, Nur Hasan, who is also a member of the Islamic People's Forum (FUI), an organization that leads a movement opposing the construction of the church, revealed that after distributing the cash and sembako, residents were asked to sign what was claimed to be a receipt.
'The church activists then used the signatures to process the permit for the construction. Some residents didn't know their signatures were used for that,' he said.
In 2006, he continued, Kranggan residents had rejected the local Catholic community's plan to build the church. At that time, the committee of the church's construction met with Islamic leaders in the area and decided to cancel the construction, he added.
'However, last April, there was a ceremony for the construction of the church that was attended by the mayor of Bekasi,' Hasan explained.
Last Thursday, residents of Jatisampurna subdistrict filed a lawsuit with the Bandung State Administrative Court against Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi for issuing a permit for the church's construction.
Responding to the allegations of manipulating residents into signing receipts to support the church's construction, Binar Sunu, head of the church's construction committee, said his team always followed all legal procedures in obtaining permits to build the church.
'The claims are baseless. We had signatures from 60 non-Catholic residents and 90 church members, without manipulation. The people who gave their signatures knew exactly the purpose of the signatures,' he emphasized.
He said the signatures had also been verified by officials from Jatisampurna district and witnessed by several society organizations like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).
'The verification process was conducted between December 2010 and January 2011. After that, we continued the process to authorized institutions such as the Religious Affairs Ministry and the City Planning Agency. They all then issued recommendations for the construction of our church,' Binar revealed.
In December 2012, he went on, the Bekasi mayor issued the permit to set up a building (SPIMB).
'It isn't true the construction of the church has been carried out without the knowledge of the surrounding residents. Since 2006, after our first attempt was rejected, we communicated intensively with local leaders about our plan to build a church,' he said.
