Amir Tejo, Surabaya – Head of the Surabaya City Police Sr. Comr. Coki Manurung on Friday denied that police had disbanded a discussion on pluralism the previous day, as organizers had claimed.
"Police did not disband any discussion yesterday so there is no need to overexpose the issue," Coki said, immediately ending a telephone interview with the Jakarta Globe.
Members of the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy, a group that advocates pluralism and freedom of worship, said they were participating in a discussion at a coffee shop at Surabaya's Inna Simpang Hotel with groups including Surabaya Legal Aid and members of the minority Ahmadiyah sect.
The meeting was to discuss solutions for eradicating discrimination and protecting religious freedom in East Java.
Setara said the meeting was disrupted by dozens of members of a group calling itself the Force of the Defenders of Islam (LPI). The LPI members accused organizers of hosting an illegal gathering and demanded that the event be halted immediately.
According to Setara, several police officers later arrived at the venue and, after discussing the problem with the hard-liners, ordered the meeting be disbanded, citing security concerns and the absence of a permit for the gathering as their reasons.
Akhol Firdays, an activist from the Center for Marginalized Communities Studies (CMARS) who had attended the discussion, said the officers mentioned the name of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to give weight to their order.
The police argued that the discussion could give rise to conflict during the president's current visit to Surabaya and could therefore endanger his safety, Setara said in a joint statement with seven other advocacy groups.
"SBY should act firmly against those police personnel who consciously made use of his name to forcefully disband the discussion," Akhol said. Failure to act, he added, would clearly show the public the extent of Yudhoyono's commitment to the enforcement of law.
Akhol said the president should take the opportunity to prove his commitment to guaranteeing human rights in the country, including freedom of religion, association and expression.
Yudhoyono, he said, should also come out with firm instructions for the police force, which has continuously appeared to bow to violent pressure frline groups.
Members of the gathering alleged the LPI are connected to the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a fundamentalist group known for imposing their religious views on others by force.
Chairman of the East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, Mutawakkil Alallah, said he agreed with the LPI's actions in disrupting the event, as it involved members of the Ahmadiyah sect, but also cautioned against the use of violence. He said that Ahmadiyah could continue to exist in Indonesia as long as they did not claim to be part of Islam.
Mainstream Muslim groups accuse Ahmadiyah of professing its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as a prophet, which runs directly against a tenet of Islam identifying Muhammad as the final prophet.