SBY orders study into prejudice

SBY orders study into prejudice

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono assigned Religious Minister
Maftuh Basyuni to find out how prevalent religious discrimination
is in the country and to review the controversial joint
ministerial letter on the construction of places of worship.

"The President has instructed the minister to carefully study
the existing problems so that undesirable cases such as the Sang
Timur case in Tangerang will not happen again," chairman of the
Indonesia Churches Association (PGI) Nathan Setiabudi said after
a meeting with Susilo on Saturday.

Local Muslim residents around the Sang Timur Catholic School
blocked all the roads to and constructed a brick wall at the
entrance of the school complex. The standoff lasted for several
weeks this past October. The conflict began after the local
residents became fed up with the Catholics, who had also been
using the school building for Sunday services over the past 12
years.

The Catholic community had complained that their plan to build
a church in the area had failed to materialize because the
majority of the population, Muslims, opposed it.

Under a joint ministerial agreement signed by the Ministry of
Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1969, any
plan to build a place of worship, including mosques, churches or
temples, must be approved by the surrounding neighborhood.

The ruling has made it very difficult for non-Muslims, about
11 percent of the country's population, to set up places of
worship as Muslim residents usually refuse to endorse any plan to
build anything other than a mosque.

"We understand that the case is quite sensitive and could
become a new source of problems, but that should not be a reason
to endorse injustice," Nathan said.

He also said that the President had issued a special
instruction for intelligence officials and law enforcers in areas
prone to religious conflict such as Central Sulawesi, Maluku and
Papua.

"The President has issued a special instruction for areas in
conflict," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

According to Nathan, the President's first instruction was
about the improvement of security in conflict areas, the second
was on the improvement of intelligence operations, both at the
central and regional levels, to detect possible security
disturbances, and the third was on improved law enforcement.

Susilo specifically ordered a 24-hour security patrol in
villages in those areas to prevent a possible escalation of
conflicts at the grassroots level.

Nathan added that the President expected all perpetrators to
be prosecuted accordingly.

"The instructions are addressed to security officials,
intelligence bodies and law enforcers," he told reporters.

Nathan also said that the condition in some conflict areas was
improving, meaning that villagers were not easily provoked by
troublemakers that have, as their main agenda, to foment further
unrest.

"Today it's not easy to incite conflicts between communities,
despite possible attempts to provoke it. And that is a step
forward," he said.

The conflict in Papua involves several issues including the
division of the island into two provinces as well as a low level
separatist movement.