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.