TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Anthropologists urge government to take stern action against intolerance
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Anthropologist PM Laksono (left) reads a statement at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta on Friday. Hundreds of anthropologists have called on the government to take stern action against intolerant groups. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
M
ore than 300 anthropologists from across the country have asked the government to protect Indonesian values and take stern action against groups that try to destroy diversity.
“Indonesian values have been continuously destroyed. We consider it important to declare an emergency situation on Indonesian values,” senior anthropologist Meutia F. Swasono said in a statement in Jakarta.
Calling themselves the Anthropologists’ Movement for Diverse and Inclusive Indonesia, the scholars called on the government, especially the police, as well as the Indonesian Military, to bring to justice groups that committed violence against minorities.
“Law enforcement should be upheld without any pressure from mass mobs,” said anthropologist PM Laksono of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
Many observers earlier viewed that an ongoing trial against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama had been held due to pressure from conservative Muslim groups.
On Dec. 2, hundreds of thousands of people, led by the conservative groups, urged the government to jail Ahok, a Christian and Chinese descent, for alleged blasphemy.
Ahok’s case is also believed to have triggered violence. Last week, for example, a Christmas service was dispersed by a group of conservative Muslims in Bandung. In Yogyakarta, another Muslim group coerced Duta Wacana Christian University to take down billboards depicting a female student wearing a hijab. (jun)
