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