Yamisa foundation 'not welcome' in S. Sulawesi
Yamisa foundation 'not welcome' in S. Sulawesi
Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
The South Sulawesi administration has banned an Islamic
foundation from operating in the province.
Governor H.Z.B. Palaguna has issued an order to all regents
and mayors in the province not to recognize the Foundation for
Islamic Ahlusunnah Wal Jamaah Mission (Yamisa) as a social
organization.
The organization has promised to give members individual
payouts of Rp 400,000 per month without giving anything in
return.
Makassar Police chief Sr. Comr. Amin Salem said on Monday that
Yamisa is an outlawed organization in the province. "There is no
Yamisa here. We ban it," he said.
The speaker of the South Sulawesi provincial legislative
council, Nurdin Mangkana, lauded the local government's firm
action against Yamisa, saying that it was aimed at preventing
"negative possibilities" from brewing due to the foundation's
presence.
Questionable organizations have often been blamed for fanning
sectarian conflicts in a number of provinces.
"Yamisa has several times applied for a permit from the
government but it has never allowed the organization to exist
here," he told The Jakarta Post, while showing a copy of the
gubernatorial instruction dated Feb. 27.
The Jakarta-based foundation, established in August 2000, has
also been banned in West Nusa Tenggara. However, the ban appeared
ineffective as the foundation defiantly set up branches there and
in several other provinces.
Members are each offered Rp 400,000 per month for an unlimited
amount of years and regional executives are each given Rp 12
million per month.
Yamisa top leader, Abdurrahman, said the money was derived
from the inheritances of past monarchs: Sriwijaya, Blambangan,
Majapahit, Mataram, Bali, Kediri, Padjadjaran, Singasari, Kutai
and Medang Kamulan as well as from accounts in Swiss banks he
claimed belonged to first president Sukarno.
Abdurrahman told a provincial legislature hearing in South
Sulawesi in April, that Yamisa did not need a permit from the
government to disburse the funds to people whom, he said, were
the rightful owners.
During the hearing, Abdurrahman showed a video featuring his
foundation's wealth in an effort to convince legislators.
But some members say Yamisa occasionally broke its promises.
"We have been promised (money) three times. But nothing has
come of it," a Yamisa member in Makassar, Patta, 42, told the
Post. He said, however, he was waiting patiently for the funds.
A 28-year-old executive of Makassar's Yamisa branch,
identified only as Dwi, acknowledged that there had been three
delays of payouts.
"The delays occurred because we were still waiting for
relevant data from the central office," he said.
Despite the ban, Dwi said, Yamisa had built 27 branches in
South Sulawesi with hundreds of thousands of people registering
to join the foundation.