GKI Yasmin church to be reopened, with a catch

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Wed, 02/02/2012


The standoff over the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin’s building permit in Bogor, West Java, may be drawing to a end, but with the caveat that a mosque must be built neighboring the church.

Bona Sigalingging, the church’s spokesman, said on Wednesday that conflict resolution between the church’s worshippers and Bogor mayor Diano Budiarto, who suspended GKI Yasmin's building permit in 2008, had finally reached a “progressive” stage.

“The mayor has agreed with a proposal from the Presidential Advisory Council,” he said after a dispute-settlement meeting with the council and the National Defense Council.

He was referring to a suggestion from the council that to end the disagreement between the local groups, a mosque should be constructed near the church, the building permission of which had already been acknowledged by the Supreme Court in 2010.

According to Bona, the idea was proposed by the council’s member, Albert Hasibuan, who led the meeting.

While Diani was not present at the meeting, Bona said that the mayor was in favor of the proposal, and said that an official letter had been sent to his congregation.

“In the letter, the mayor said that he had proposed the same idea to the church’s followers, but that we had rejected the proposal. This is not true, maybe there were problems with our communication with each other,” he said as quoted by tempo.co.

Although the church had yet to give an official response to the proposal, Bona said that they deemed the idea as “a small, but progressive step” in ending the dispute.

The GKI Yasmin dispute started when the Bogor City Planning and Parks Agency decided to freeze the church’s building permit, citing “the objection from local residents” as the excuse, in 2008.

In 2010, the Supreme Court said that the congregation had the rights to build their church in the area. However, the Bogor mayor did not give the building permit to GKI Yasmin worshippers, and the church building was sealed in 2010.

The church-goers had reportedly been on the receiving end of intimidation from alleged hard-line Muslim groups, which pushed them to not hold services in the church building.

Church dispute solution: 'No need to appease majority'


The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Thu, 05/03/2012.

Human rights activists and political observers have criticized the outcome of a recent meeting between the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Bogor, West Java, and the city's administration in which "win-win" compromise will see a mosque built adjacent to the church.

This followed a series of mediation sessions between church representatives, the administration, members of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Advisory Council and the National Defense Council, which ended on Wednesday.

According to Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice's (IHCS) chief executive, Gunawan, the government should not have required GKI Yasmin to accept the construction of the mosque.

"The state should not prescribe requirements on individuals or communities in what they worship or where they worship," Gunawan said on Thursday.

"Suppose I was trying to build a mosque in Bali. Am I automatically required to build a Hindu temple right next to my mosque? Of course not. Religious minority groups should not be obligated to appease majority groups for the right to worship."

"If the state wants to use my taxes to build such things, that's fine, so long as they follow the proper procedures. In this case, they didn't.”

Driyarkara School of Philosophy sociologist B. Herry-Priyono said Thursday that the proposal was “a very ridiculous idea” that would create even more tension.

“According to the Constitution, the government must protect minority groups. However, such a policy could be a time bomb for us because the government did not consider the needs of religious followers to have their own space," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

"What will the government do if there was a battle of loudspeakers there?” he said, adding that the followers of each religion need at least 200 to 300 meters of space from the other group.

A University of Indonesia social science and politics professor, Otho Hernowo Hadi, said that Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto exacerbated tensions between his administration and GKI Yasmin by his absence at the mediation sessions. "It is the responsibility of officials like Diani to lead mediation whenever there are social tensions. Diani's absence also lowers the public faith in the law.”

There are ways for leaders to prevent violence without having to limit religious liberties, Otho said.

"The government has to be vigilant in promoting mediation forums to resolve social disputes. In this case, the regional administration should open up religious tolerance forums. And in this case, of course, Diani should help lead them," Otho said.

However, despite their criticisms of the recent outcome, both Gunawan and Otho were optimistic that the Bogor and GKI Yasmin communities can coexist peacefully.

"Look at Nusa Dua in Bali. There they have an entire row of religious worship buildings next to one another. There is no conflict there. A Hindu can worship next door to a Muslim or any other religion without any problems. They're relaxed. Religious harmony is a practical reality," he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Muti, secretary of Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Muslim group, said that the solution “would be okay” as long as it was in line with the procedures of building a prayer house.

“I think it will not be deemed as an act of coercion if they follow the law. Look at the case of the Jakarta Cathedral standing side-by-side with the Istiqlal Mosque, or other cases such as in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, where a churche’s walls sometimes fuse with a mosque’s,” Abdul said.

Separately, Ahmad Suaedy, executive director of the Wahid Institute, a nongovernmental organization focusing on pluralism, said moving the church building was a better option.

“They need to be wise. Building the church in that location, even though it has been ordered by the Supreme Court, will only lead to further conflict,” he said The dispute over the church building started in 2001, when the congregation purchased land in Curug Mekar, West Bogor.

Despite being able to get a building permit from the Bogor administration in 2005, Diani later revoked GKI Yasmin's permit in 2008, saying that the church forged documents to gain the permit, which the caretakers denied.

Diani ignored a Supreme Court ruling ordering the opening of the church and a recommendation from the National Ombudsman Commission saying that members of the GKI Yasmin congregation should be allowed to perform religious practices in their own church.

Dit is al heel lang dezelfde tactiek:
Als er ergens een christelijke kerk gebouw staat of gebouwd wordt, dan wordt er snel zo dicht mogelijk een (soms maar kleine) moskee gebouwd.
Als de kerkdienst bezig is, dan starten de luidsprekers bij de moskee, met gezang en preken, het geluid zo hard mogelijk.
Terwijl er NIEMAND in de moskee is om te bidden.

De Istiqlal Mosque was de grootste moskee in Azië toen het gebouwd werd en waarom? Omdat de Kathedraal van Jakarta de grootste kathedraal van Azië was !
Ze staan vlakbij elkaar !


DK

The Jakarta Post, Bogor Sat, 05/05/2012


The congregation of the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin in Taman Yasmin, Bogor, West Java, demanded on Friday that the city administration abide by the law and open the church for services.

“We are against the relocation plan offered by the Bogor administration because it contravenes the law,” church spokesman Bona Sigalingging told The Jakarta Post. “The Supreme Court has ordered the reopening of our church.”

He was responding to a statement made by Ade Sarip Hidayat, administrative affairs assistant to the Bogor mayor, about the relocation plan.

Ade Sarip told the Post on Friday that the administration had made several offers to GKI Yasmin to relocate the church, citing pressures from local residents as the reason. The first option was to move the church to a plot of land on Jl. Suryakencana; the second was to offer the churchgoers Harmoni building, for which the rental fees would be borne by the administration; and the last option was to move the church to a 1,000-square-meter plot of land on Jl. Semeru.

“All of the options have been rejected by the church,” he said. “We also offered another solution in which a mosque would be built adjacent to the church, but the church has dismissed that, too.”

According to Bona, however, the administration had never made the offers to the churchgoers.

“We didn’t know anything about those offers; we only found out about them from the media. But the point is, if the solution is relocation to anywhere, anytime, we can’t accept it because we consider it to be illegal, violating the Supreme Court’s ruling and the ombudsman’s recommendations,” Bona said.

The dispute over the church building began in 2001, when the congregation purchased land in Curug Mekar, West Bogor.

Despite obtaining a building permit from the Bogor administration in 2005, Mayor Diani Budiarto later revoked GKI Yasmin’s
permit in 2008, saying the church forged documents to gain it, which the caretakers have always strenuously denied.

Diani ignored a Supreme Court ruling ordering the reopening of the church and a recommendation from the National Ombudsman Commission saying that members of the GKI Yasmin congregation should be allowed to perform religious practices in their own church.

In February, the House of Representatives also ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling and told the churchgoers to try to resolve the dispute with the local administration. The House also mandated the central government to step in and provide room for mediation of the conflict.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Advisory Council and the National Defense Council (Wantannas) brokered a month’s negotiations between the disputing parties, but Diani skipped all meetings.

Diani sent an official letter to be read during the last meeting on Wednesday which, according to Wantannas’ secretary-general, Lt. Gen. Junianto Haroen, was in line with the council’s idea of building a mosque next to the church as a solution and, therefore, concluded that the dispute was nearly settled.

The next day, however, the administration rejected the mosque idea, saying that the offer they had made to GKI Yasmin churchgoers and local residents was obsolete.

University of Indonesia (UI) social science and politics professor, Otho Hernowo Hadi, said Thursday that Diani had only exacerbated tensions between his administration and GKI Yasmin by his absence at the mediation sessions.

“It is the responsibility of officials like Diani to lead mediation whenever there are social tensions. Diani’s absence has also reduced the public’s faith in the law.”

The Mayor of Bogor not listen to the Supreme Court and provoked problems

Dk

It is up to central government in Jakarta to pull this mayor up by the ears, he's even ignoring High Court orders, but seeing that a large proportion of those "in charge" kow-towing" to the hardliners (elections coming up) nothing much will ever come from the GKI Yasmin standing on their right to worship in their own church. They should be like that young tree in the storm that bends with the wind, and when the storm is over it will stand straight and grow into a strong tree, rather than stand tall and un-bending snapping in half at the hight of the storm! What should be of more importance to them, to worship God, or the church building? Saludos siK.

And what about the pancasila?

DK

oh-oh die bro K'nijn! You have just asked the 64.000 dollar question my friend, countless others would like the answer to that also! It is a bit like that old kerosene can they used to bang at night to keep the spirits at bay! Perhaps someone else from among the members here could come up with a better answer, sampai strakkies dan, siK.