Ezra Sihite – Pressure is mounting on the government to disband mass organizations known to have used violent tactics to achieve their goals, following a series of attacks by those groups' members.

National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) chief Budi Susilo Soepandji urged police to act against organizations in violation of the law, including those disrupting public order, while calling on the Ministry of Home Affairs to disband such organizations.

"Lemhannas supports the government to give punishment to organizations violating laws and destroying public buildings," he said.

The government has never disbanded any mass organizations, despite some groups' brazen violent acts.

Just last month, the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) pelted rocks at the Home Affairs Ministry's Central Jakarta office in protest of the minister's decision to review local bylaws banning alcohol sales. Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Wednesday that the FPI is one violation away from having its license suspended.

The ministry, Gamawan said, issued a second letter of warning to the group after its members attacked his office. On Thursday, he reiterated the short leash that his ministry was giving to the organization.

He also complained that it was too easy for people to form a mass organization. His office's data put the number of mass organizations at more than 64,000, excluding unregistered groups. "It's like making an egg martabak," he said.

According to Gamawan, his office can disband an organization if it channels aid abroad without permit, receives aid from overseas, develops ideological tenets incompatible with the state's Pancasila philosophy, or causes public disorder.

Civil society group Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) demanded that the government check the internal regulations of each organization to see if they encourage the use of violence to achieve their goals.

"The home affairs minister should evaluate if they agree on using violence. If they do so, then they should be disbanded," Imparsial executive director Poengky Indarti said.

She pointed to FPI as an example of an organization involved in several instances of violence across the country. On Tuesday, some 300 people staged a rally at Jakarta's Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, demanding that the FPI be disbanded.

Gamawan said despite mounting calls for the FPI's dissolution, his ministry needed to follow procedures stipulated by law.

Tuesday's rally, organized by a group calling itself "FPI-Free Indonesia," was marred by scuffles after several people struck demonstrators and tried to steal anti-FPI banners. Organizers of the rally said that they had been inspired by Dayak tribesmen in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, who on Saturday forced the FPI to abandon plans to open a local branch.

Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said the police did not have the authority to disband any organization.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said in the last two months there were 11 clashes involving mass organizations, including the FPI. "The police will take action against anybody violating the law," he said, adding that violence involving mass organizations had increased recently.