On concern over the TPM
On concern over the TPM
Bali Post of Dec. 3, 2002 reported on the concern of the Muslim Lawyers Team (TPM) if the trials of Amrozi, Imam Samudra and their accomplices are held in the Denpasar District Court in Bali. It is feared that they will be on public trial.
In this context I would like to give some advice to the defending team as follows: 1. The Balinese community is generally a lover of the arts; creative, diligent and hard working. Men and women, the youth and children alike spend a great deal of their time to work and work and work. The Balinese are particularly polite and have a great respect for social order. 2. If the Balinese had really wanted to take the law into their own hands, they would have attacked Amrozi who was in police custody in Bali and ransacked the police office. 3. Also it is not necessary to move the trial of the Bali bombing suspects to Surabaya, East Java, or to other places outside Bali. The Balinese community, on the other hand, would be furious and feel deeply insulted should the trials be held outside Bali. 4. To be frank, we cannot accept the term: Muslim Lawyers Team, solely because the Bali bomb blasts were conducted by Amrozi and Imam Samudra and their accomplices as individuals, and not in the name of Islam. So why call it TPM? The team could be called "team for defending Amrozi, and Imam Samudra" or whatever, without linking it to Islam. 5. Accordingly I would like to suggest that the defending lawyers change the name of the team and discard the present name. 6. Even though we are Muslims (in the majority) in West Nusa Tenggara, we do not accept and are not pleased with the name used by the suspects' lawyers, which links Muslims and Islam to the recent Bali blasts. 7. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Indonesian Council of Ulemas had strongly condemned the actions of the Bali bombers. They have also recommended that the suspects be severely punished if proved guilty in the trials.
May the Bali tragedy turn out to be a blessing in disguise and unite us even more closely and strengthen our sense of brotherhood, regardless of differences of religion and ethnicity.
H. MUH. IDRUS, Chairman Indonesian Committee for Monitoring Social and Political Affairs, West Nusa Tenggara