The problem with religious disputes, Albert Hasibuan, a presidential aide, said lies in local leaders' defiance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He lamented that they had ignored the President's speeches about tolerance and cited demands to throw out the Shiite community from Sampang in Madura, East Java.
If only local leaders practiced what the President preached, Albert assumed, all would be well. If this was so, another aide said, critics would not be so "narrow-minded" and reject the honor of the World Statesman Award to be conferred later this week on our President, for his promotion of religious tolerance.
Now, the "narrow-minded" would be scratching their heads over the remarks of both the President and Albert, a member of the presidential advisory board. Yudhoyono has said that the award is for the nation, not for his personal achievements, and is from "a credible international organization that has observed our country closely for some time".
One does not need to have observed Indonesia for a very long time to see the reason behind the widespread criticism of the decision by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF) to bestow the award on our President.
As he boarded his plane – heading to Sweden first with a business delegation before heading to New York to collect his award – the displaced Shiite community taking shelter in a sports stadium in Sampang are wondering whether East Java Governor Soekarwo will bow to demands to evict them from their homes.
Members of the Ahmadiyah are still locked inside their sealed mosque just east of the capital in Bekasi; the regent openly said the Ahmadis, which mainstream Muslims do not recognize as part of Islam, violated a ministerial decree by propagating their faith.
Albert must have forgotten that local leaders do not take their cue from presidential speeches. The mayor of Bogor in West Java, also near Jakarta, has refused to execute a Supreme Court ruling that favored the followers of the GKI Yasmin church, and the church's construction remains stalled.
Local leaders now take cue from the inaction and silence of law enforcers that stand-by while mosques, churches and minority faith community buildings are sealed, destroyed or burnt. Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi and Religous Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali have even said that local leaders' decisions to restrict minorities are within the realm of regional autonomy.
An online movement with over 5,000 signatures rejected the award from the American foundation and respected priest Franz Magnis-Suseno openly reminded the ACF of intolerance toward minorities here.
Without state protection, minorities have expressed joint solidarity. Christians, Shiite Muslims and Ahmadis joined a recent gathering near the Ahmadiyah mosque in Bekasi, representing Sobat KBB, a group of minority faiths whose followers have been harassed, intimidated, evacuated, stabbed and even murdered.
If it takes a trip to New York to wake up the President and his staff, then that would be the silver lining behind the billowing clouds of embarrassment.