Government sued for intervention

Government sued for intervention

JAKARTA (JP): Two Buddhist denominations yesterday filed a
lawsuit at the Jakarta Administrative Council against the
government for endorsing their expulsion from the Indonesian
Buddhist Council (Walubi), an umbrella organization for all
Buddhist groups.

Majelis Buddhayana Indonesia (MBI) and Sangha Agung Indonesia
(Sagin) said the government, in this case the Director General
for Hindu and Buddhist Affairs at the Ministry of Religious
Affairs, I Ketut Pasek, did not have any right to intervene in
the internal affairs of Walubi.

"The director general, as the patron of Walubi, is supposed to
help solve the dispute in Walubi's executive board," the head of
the Youth Department of MBI, Lieus Sungkharisma, who represents
the two plaintiffs, said in the lawsuit. "It was not supposed to
take sides in the dispute within the board," Lieus said.

The government, at a meeting with Walubi executive board
members on Wednesday, reportedly endorsed the board's decision in
October to expel the two denominations, which have been locked in
a power struggle to lead the board with the other seven
denominations.

The board said the two denominations have refused to sign
Walubi's statutes, which were drawn up at the council's last
general assembly in December 1992.

Siti Hartarti Murdaya, head of Walubi's honorary board, on
Thursday, accused MBI and Sagin of applying a different faith
than most other Buddhists denominations.

The Walubi executive board has sent letters to the government
explaining that the two groups could no longer be called Buddhist
organizations. They are simply mass organizations which should be
registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs and not the Ministry
of Religious Affairs.

In the lawsuit, MBI and Sagin also named Girirakkhito
Mahathera and Budi Setiawan, respectively Walubi chairman and
secretary-general, as defendants because they were the ones who
issued the decree expelling the two denominations.

Lieus said that Girirakkhito and Budi violated Walubi's Code
of Ethics and the Buddhists' pledge declared in 1979, which extol
harmony and no violence in solving any internal conflict.

He said Girirakkhito and Budi repeatedly made personal
decisions without going through a plenary meeting of the 13-
member executive board. "Every personal decision made is against
Walubi's statutes and regulations," Lieus said.

Lieus asked the court to cancel the letter issued by the
Directorate General of Hinduism and Buddhism and to order
Girirakkhito Mahathera and Budi Setiawan to rehabilitate the
names of the plaintiffs and accept them as members of Walubi's
executive board. (imn)