School's wall falls, tensions still high

School's wall falls, tensions still high

Urip Hudiono and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The two-meter-high concrete wall that sealed off the Sang Timur
Catholic school in Ciledug, Tangerang, came crashing down on
Monday, but intolerance in the community is still a force to
reckon with.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric and former president Abdurrahman
"Gus Dur" Wahid stepped in to mediate on Monday, but after three
weeks of little action, Tangerang public orders officers had
demolished the wall just a few hours before his arrival.

A group of residents calling themselves the Karang Tengah
Islamic Communication Forum and the Islam Youth Front violently
protested the demolition of the wall.

Tangerang police arrested three of them, while dozens of the
NU's paramilitary group, Banser, were observed guarding the
school compound.

Amid the cheers of students and parents, Gus Dur said that,
while he was glad the local administration had finally come to
its senses and dismantled the wall, he wondered why it had been
so slow to react against such an unlawful act.

Yolanda Olivia, a seventh-grader who takes the school's class
for autistic and disabled students, hoped Gus Dur would be able
to do something so "we can study in peace and have a good time at
school again."

But afterward, when Gus Dur met with locals at the nearby
Nurul Imam mosque, he was booed by residents who insisted that
road access to the school be denied.

They claimed the school had violated its permit by holding
services for the local Saint Bernadette parish, and that it had
converted locals.

Gus Dur said that Indonesia was not an Islamic state dictated
to by a certain group, so tolerance and dialogue should be the
priority of all the nation's different groups.

"And where Muslims are the majority, they should protect the
rights of minority groups," he said.

"You have pointed out Sang Timur's faults, but you have not
realized your own violations of the Constitution by denying
children their right to education, and the religious freedom of
others," he added. "The local administration has also made it
difficult for the parish to obtain its permit to build a church."

Walking out of the meeting, Gus Dur said he was ready to
deploy Banser if local groups continued to use force against the
school, and would take the case to court.

Chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection
(Komnas Anak) Seto Mulyadi, who was also present, replaced him as
mediator.

Students left peacefully after their classes, despite the
day's chain of events. A second wall -- which was erected by
locals on Sunday to block the alternative entrance gate on the
school's eastern side -- still stands. School officials said
classes would not be postponed anymore.

Earlier on Monday, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
Alwi Shihab said that the government would find an amicable
solution to the case. "The case should be settled by talks and
not by physical force ... Those who built the wall should also
realize that their actions have disrupted religious harmony."