Nurfika Osman – Religious freedom advocates have expressed disappointment with the government over its failure to stand up to hard-line Islamic groups that have unlawfully persecuted members of minority faiths.
In a statement released to the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday, the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy said: "President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should call on the National Police chief to take action against vigilante groups that make the people feel uneasy."
"This is not just for the image of the president, but to uphold the law," the statement read, referring to raids by such groups.
Last week, police in Surabaya broke up a meeting on tolerance hosted by Setara and several rights and religious minority groups after members of the Force of the Defenders of Islam (LPI) tried to disband the gathering.
On Sunday, a transexual beauty pageant in Jambi province was broken up by members of the Muslim Students Association (HMI), while on Tuesday, Siliwangi villagers in Bogor blocked the entrance to a residential estate for Ahmadiyah sect members.
The local military command said it was powerless to stop the move but vowed to "prevent the Ahmadiyah community from being targeted by residents."
Setara said the public and law-enforcement officials should not stand for such violations. "Allowing these groups to keep up their actions is to cede law enforcement to civilians who are fond of violence," it said.
It also said police scrapped an event scheduled for this Friday because of pressure from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). The event, "Indonesia and the World in 1965," would have addressed the coup attempt of 1965, which the military and government have officially blamed on the now-banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
The FPI had earlier broken up meetings it claimed were attempts at reviving the communist movement.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bahrul Alam denied the force had allowed groups like the FPI to take the law into their own hands. "We always take legal action against the FPI," he told the Globe.