Safrin La Batu, Jakarta – Members of the former Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) at the Bina Insan Rehabilitation Center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, are facing uncertain futures as they have nowhere to return to. Most of them sold their houses before joining the others in Kalimantan.

Forty-seven-year-old Dedy and 45-year-old Supriyanto, from Bogor of West Java and Cilandak of South Jakarta respectively, said they wanted to leave the center, but none of their families in Greater Jakarta have come to pick them up. They said they had been rejected by their families and people in their hometowns because they are ex-members of Gafatar.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on Wednesday declared Gafatar a heretical movement as it is reported to have attempted to combine the teachings of Islam, Christianity and Judaism and because it declared Ahmad Mussadeq, the founder of the banned Al-Qiyadah al-Islamiyah organization, a prophet.

"I will get a headache here because I have nothing to do. I miss my life in Samarinda [in East Kalimantan] where I could take care of my farm every day," Dedy told The Jakarta Post.

Supriyanto, who stays at the center with his wife and two children, said that while their children could cheerfully play during activities scheduled by the center, parents could only wander around the center complex since there was nothing for them to do.

The center's head, Harjanto, said that one of the obstacles facing the ex-Gafatar members was that the majority of them no longer had homes. Hence they had to rely on relatives.

"We are currently communicating with authorities from areas where they belong. The authorities help us identify their families before we return them," he said. He added that out of 600 people relocated to Bina Insan, around 350 people are still waiting for their families.

The government evacuated hundreds of former Gafatar families, including Dedy's and Supriyanto's, to their hometowns following a recent mob attack against them in Mempawah regency, West Kalimantan.

Coming from Greater Jakarta, Dedy's and Supriyanto's families, who migrated to Kalimantan to start farming several months ago, were subsequently forced to return to Jakarta.

According to Dedy, he became interested in farming after he joined Gafatar several years ago while he was still in Bogor. The organization was disbanded in August last year, but he and other ex-members of Gafatar continued their agricultural activities.

"So we did not farm as Gafatar members. The organization had long been disbanded. We were there as a farming community," he explained.

Dedy, who used to work as a trader, said he had decided to sell his house and other properties in Bogor and moved to Samarinda three months ago to start a new life on a farm.

"Indonesia has a huge amount of land, but almost every staple food we have here is imported. Rice is imported. If this country wants to gain food security it should encourage its citizens to work as farmers, or at least it should not limit their farming. The fact is that the majority of Indonesian youth today no longer see farming as an interesting profession," he explained.

In Samarinda, Dedy started from scratch with the money he got from selling his home. He began to cultivate a plot of land a local resident had lent him for three years.

"I planted cassava and other types of vegetables on just one hectare of land. The cassava was about to be harvested, but I left it all because I was forced to go," he said, adding that the relocation order came despite the fact that the ex-Gafatar members where he lived did not experience any conflicts with local residents.

"Some neighbors even cried when we went because we had become very close. Some of them even said they were ready to accommodate us in their houses," Dedy said.

Similarly, Supriyanto, who once worked as an electrician in Cilandak, also said he sold his house and properties to go to Melawi in West Kalimantan to start a farm. He said he and hundreds of his friends, also ex-members of Gafatar, had already started cultivating about 100 hectares of land borrowed from local residents when government officials told them to leave the area. "There was no compensation from the government. We just left the land and came here," he said.

Supriyanto and Dedy said living in a farming community was more than just about earning a living. They said they could easily control and educate their children in the community. "In the community, my children were also the children of other families. Everyone took care of my children just like I took care of theirs," Dedy said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/05/ex-gafatar-members-have-nowhere-go.html