APSN | Mayor under fire after opening HTI office

Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

Mayor under fire after opening HTI office

Jakarta Post - February 12, 2016

Universities bow to religious hard-liners – Jakarta Post. January 22, 2016
Royal conflict could benefit vigilante groups, analyst warns – Jakarta Post. January 12, 2016
Jakarta police slammed for standing idle amid hard-liner raid – Jakarta Globe. December 30, 2015
No need to apologize for 1965 communist purge: FPI – Jakarta Post. October 1, 2015
FPI meets with Jakarta military commander to discuss PKI communist threat – Peka News. August 14, 2015

Bogor – The mayor of Bogor, West Java, Bima Arya Sugiarto, has been severely criticized by a number of civil society organizations after he made a speech at the opening of an office of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an organization known for its strong opposition to state ideology Pancasila.

Teguh Santoso, the chairman of human rights organization Yayasan Satu Keadilan, called Bima's decision to attend the meeting "unfortunate" given HTI's strong opposition not only to Pancasila but also to Indonesia's governmental system.

"His presence at the meeting could be taken as legitimizing the position of the HTI. It also shows that he doesn't have a clear stance or ideals," Teguh said as quoted by tempo.co.

In a photo that went viral, Bima was seen making a speech at a podium with the HTI flag in the background. On Thursday, a coalition of organizations called the Civil Movement for Pancasila (Grup) also criticized Bima's presence at the meeting, claiming that it showed that he supported the "anti-Pancasila" organization.

In an official statement to defend his attendance at the meeting, Bima said: "A leader should always reach out to any invitation for meetings, and differences in belief, religion and political views should not be reasons for not making friends."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/12/greater-jakarta-mayor-under-fire-after-opening-hti-office.html.