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."