Candidates told to stop discrimination

Nethy Dharma Somba and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post/Jayapura/Makassar

Church leaders are seeking assurances that the next president will put an end to discrimination against minority groups in the world's most populous Muslim country.

The church leaders raised their concerns in separate meetings with the incumbent president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and Jusuf Kalla, the running mate of presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during a two-day national church leaders' gathering in the Papua capital Jayapura, which ended on Wednesday.

"In many cases we have learned that religious tolerance is mere rhetoric, which eventually restricts our efforts to guide our congregations," the church leaders said in a statement.

They expressed fear of what they called emerging radicalism that had led to sectarian conflict in parts of the country. They said the phenomenon denied the pluralistic nature of Indonesia.

"We regret the fact that the radicalism that provoked conflict between followers of different religions has never been resolved," the statement said.

Christians make up only 10 percent of the country's population of 215 million people.

"We presented our concerns to both presidential tickets, so which either one of them is elected can address our concerns," Papua head of the Christian Synod Rev. Herman Saud, one of the participants of the meeting, said on Wednesday.

Earlier, a number of Protestant congregations demanded that the government scrap a government regulation requiring a religious community to consult the government and other religious groups before constructing a place of worship. They claimed the regulation justified discrimination as plans to build a place of worship was always objected to during consultation.

Implementation of sharia has also become a worry among minority groups, although most factions in the People's Consultative Assembly have declared it no longer an issue.

Addressing their concerns, Megawati told the church leaders on Wednesday that she would remain committed to the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila state ideology, which respects pluralism.

"These are the basic principles of our lives. We will not change the foundations of the country," she said.

The night before, Kalla said Christians were too concerned about sharia.

"Sharia has been adopted only regards Muslims, the same way Christianity requires its followers to go to church. We should not view the issue with a narrow mind," he told the church leaders.

The Susilo-Kalla pair is running under the Democratic Party banner and is supported by, among others, the Crescent Star Party (PBB), which has been campaigning for sharia.

During a stopover in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Megawati held a brief meeting with heads of the provincial branches of four parties -- the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the United Development Party (PPP). The four parties declared last week the formation of a coalition to support Megawati's bid for a full five-year mandate.

Megawati asked leaders of the branch offices to disseminate information about the coalition to the grass roots and convince them that supporting the coalition would be for the good of the nation.