Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The House of Representatives has bowed to calls by several lawmakers to hold a meeting to discuss the controversial case of the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor.
House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said on Thursday that Commission II, which oversees internal affairs, Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, and Commission VIII, which oversees religion, gender and social empowerment, had agreed to hold a meeting on the subject today, the last day before the House enters a recess period.
"Tomorrow there will be a joint meeting and everyone will be invited by the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs and the minister of religious affairs," said Pramono, a lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Golkar Party lawmaker Nusron Wahid said the meeting should involve the various House commissions concerned with the case.
"I demand an explanation from House Commissions II, III and VIII about whether we are actually aware that it will be Christmas soon and they [GKI Yasmin congregation] need some certainty as to where they will hold their Christmas celebration," Nusron said.
GKI Yasmin has been in dispute with the Bogor government since 2008, when Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto decided to revoke the building permit issued earlier for the church. Despite a Supreme Court ruling asking the mayor to reopen the church, he has kept it closed, forcing the congregation to worship on the side of the road.
Maruarar Sirait, another PDI-P politician, said legislators should show some "sensitivity" to the plight of the congregation. "The DPR should have a sense of crisis," he said.
A PDI-P meeting in Bandung, West Java, on Wednesday said the party would push for the Bogor mayor to abide by the Supreme Court ruling that demanded the ban be revoked.
Puan Maharani, the head of the organizing committee of the meeting, also called on all PDI-P cadres to take the necessary political and legal steps to defend and protect the citizens who had been wronged.
The church has continued to reject offers that it move to one of three new sites proposed by the local administration, maintaining that they are legally entitled to use their existing yet sealed building.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi on Monday said that if the church agreed to the offer, he would ask the West Java government to guarantee that the alternative plot be given for free to replace the current church.